Saga of a Hero
by ThalioTP
Summary: Her country betrayed her, her mother hunted down and killed, and those who did it, stabbed her right through the heart. By fate, her corpse met a young Necromancer, and she was revived. Melody the Undead must now overthrow those who had wronged her, but can she do it before her borrowed time ends? And what awaits her in this vengeance-filled journey?
1. Prologue Arc, Ch1 The Overgrow Knight

_**Prologue Arc: The Olden Days**_

_**Chapter One**_

_**"The Overgrown Knight"**_

* * *

It was the breezy summer of June, nearing the cold of autumn that was peeking its head from around the corner of the month. The smell of the meadows as they danced in the rhythmic seasonal wind, blowing from each and every corner of the pale green grasses, sang a song of the coming cold from miles and miles away, and into the future to come.

Through the brown stained window, perplexed by its enigmatic, systematic and almost magical nature, a girl in beautiful raven-colored hair breathed out a heavy sigh.

She tilted her head, pushing her gaze upwards from the breath-stain on the glass. Her small skinny arms trying to support the weight of her yet to be developed breasts. Her uncleaned fingernails tapping along the stone windowsill where she timidly caressed the smooth sensation of concrete sand and dust particles under her fingertips.

She appeared to be waiting for something, or someone. Taking note of the little dances of the meadows to pass time. And once every few seconds, she sighed yet again. Her expressions mirrored the longing

look of melancholy, but pray tell for what a girl of her young age have to be melancholic about?

Dressed in a loose moth-eaten nightgown, she felt a tug at the hem of her of bodywear. Her bare right foot had carelessly stepped on her own nightgown again as she tried to stand on the tips of her toes, being unable to easily look past the window due to her small size.

Her heels fall and rise, time and time again, almost as if they were starting to tire out from supporting her weight. The raven-haired girl didn't seem to matter, she was too busy gazing upon the dance of the meadows.

And then, not too long later, her heart leaped in pure excitement.

A smile beamed from the edges of her red strawberry cheeks and pale lips, when she gazed upon the meadows once again.

A figure approached her, its heel clicking at every step she made on the cold stone floor. It was a young woman in her early twenties, dressed in an aging white nun's robe. Her face visible only by the help of her bandeau and veil, yet she sported a soft beautiful smile as her eyes fell upon the little raven-haired girl.

"What could it be that you are doing instead of joining supper with the others?" The little girl almost jumped at the mention of her. When the Sister in white robes came to light, her clothed hands laid on top of one another in front of her waist, "Little Harmony?"

"Nothing, Sister Julia," The raven-haired girl named Harmony said. When the Sister spoke, the little girl almost felt an immediate need to deeply grumble from the depths of her throat. It was nothing short of obvious to Harmony; Sister Julia's entrance couldn't have come at a worse time.

Sister Julia looked up, pondering just a little in silence as Harmony had yet again gotten herself preoccupied. The Sister began walking to the windowsill, Harmony seemingly refusing to give space.

The Sister had a build much taller than Harmony, her white veil falling carelessly as she tilted her head from the side of the window. Looking past the brown-stained glass just as well.

In an instant, the meadowlands came to view, yet, the dance of the wind was interrupted by a band of horses and men in shining silver and white garb. Unannounced as they were, rows after rows of armored sentinels with tall unbending spears of light passed their church. Their stone-cold expressions, Harmony guessed, were hidden inside helmets of silver and white. To those of whom they oppose, their arrival was nothing short of pure terror.

But that was not the case for the little girl who stood on her tip-toes behind the window. Her eyes were gleaming with awe. Shining, even when the clouds were that of melancholic grey and tasteless white, beckoned by the coming of autumn. Something that could be described as a sense of duty.

Julia passed a glance from the infantry of men and horses, even when the rumbling cracks of their hooves and the steady rhythmic growl of their march could be heard from the safety of their run-in-the-mill church.

"I suppose I can not ask why you're spending your afternoon waiting for The Kingdom's Finest Men to pass by our field, instead of having supper with the rest of your family?" Julia asked, already knowing what Harmony would answer in return.

Another low grunt was heard. Harmony seemingly melted into her own arms on top of the windowsill, burying her face from the nose down. Her gaze unchanging from the passing infantry. Yet her eyebrows were furrowed.

"Sister Patricia is asking for you, you know?" Julia pressed on. A small smile appearing again on her lips.

"I don't want to," Harmony whined, her voice muffled by her pout.

"She's worried,"

"Mmmm,"

It was cute. Julia was familiar with Harmony to know that she was never the type of child that was able to hold herself back from the guttural emotion of remorse when pressed by the situation. It was almost instinct for this child to be so kind, the Sister often found it amusing. Guilt-tripping was a favorite game of hers to play with Harmony, but she had a feeling the other party found it less than satisfactory.

"Then be as it may," The sister cooed, stroking the black hair of the child, "Come back to the dinner table whenever you wish. I will leave a plate of porridge for you to eat later. And don't worry, I'll inform Sister Patricia that you were practicing your clerical lessons."

"But I don't want to be a cleric," The child's desperate croak could be heard even when she buried her head between her own arms.

Julia only smiled, but it was softened to a degree. It was one of the reasons why Sister seemed to have grown a little favoritism towards this particular orphan amongst the dozen others inside their clerical church. Because despite what anyone did, this little one selfishly did nothing less but dreamt her own dreams. Always so headstrong, it was what kept her on being so different and indifferent at the same time, and it was almost admirable. Not many could hold the same amount of kindness and childhood innocence in one being like her.

After all of her efforts, Sister Julia knew she could not force her ways, the ways of her Sisters, nor the ways of the Sisters before her, into Harmony no matter how much she wishfully thought to herself. Yet she was still afraid, the young redhead had yet to venture to the outside world, and thus secluded from the evil truth of reality. Harmony's naivety may only doom her in the future, for what is a dreamer in the real world?

Harmony was young, but perhaps that was why she had yet to understand how dangerous the world really was. All the young boys and girls in the orphanage were like that, left behind by their loved ones, their futures are not always evident, sometimes rather grim. Julia was once the same, she was lucky to find the Lord's house amidst her trying times, and then her entire life was devoted to help those walking through the same mud. She was sure that a student of a clerical church will always be a cleric, same as how an Elf will always be an Elf, and a Knight will always be a Knight. Even if Harmony wouldn't, Julia was willing to be afraid for her. Nobody here knew their own flesh and blood from the moment they were born. The clerics of the church only knew to see each other as family. It was a responsibility for Julia to be exactly that for Harmony.

"Listen well, Harmony," Julia sweetly cooed, running the palm of her hand down the soft unruly hair of the child, "Being a cleric has many honorable traits as a profession. Blessed are those who goes to heal the sick and the dying, while spreading the teachings of the Lord forthwith. Not many can be tasked with such noble jobs, but you, Harmony, are lucky to have been born under the roof of this church."

The little girl seemed crestfallen, Julia knew that she was expecting a different answer. It was never the question of whether or not she trusted Harmony, but she couldn't bear the guilt if something was to happen and she wasn't there to do anything about it. Julia was sure that, in time, Harmony would prove her wrong. Prove to her that she was capable to do more in this world. But at the moment, Harmony was one of the precious children of the church. It was Julia's duty to protect them.

"Come, let's get you back to the dinner table," the Sister said as she picked up the young raven haired girl, carrying her in her arms. Her soft comforting tone echoed down her chest, rumbling through her veiled breasts as Harmony snuggled deeply into her embrace.

The two disappeared out of the nave, their shadows dancing in the rhythm of the wax candles rested upon the golden altar, where another, more ominous shadow loomed over the dome apse. Such is the place where the clerical church build a home for the personification of their God; a figure nearly seven feet tall in height, a more feminine feature is prominent on the statue's face, granite veil covered most of the figure's body including it's hair, both its hands reaching out in a welcoming gesture, symbolically welcoming others to its teachings.

Hanging in front of the church door, the brass doorbell chimed, signalling an incoming wind from the East. Hours passed after supper, the main building whistling a rustic hollow tune from an open window, banging and clapping against metal and wood. Again, the candles flickered; the wind blowing stronger and stronger. Beyond the safe walls of the clerical church, something tapped wetly against the bricks and stone. And like the wind, the storm crashed onto the land just as quick.

Almost without warning, the once quiet and desolate corridors were filled with unrelenting pitter-patters of bullet-like rain. The storm was heavy, it's like all the missed rain in the summer of June were crashing down upon them at that moment.

And then came the thunderous roar that shook the world and made the hearts of men tremble.

"Sister…" cried out one of the children of the church. As Julia hurriedly went to close all open windows in the building, she felt someone tug at her dress. A little boy no older than 4 was pulling at her hip, burying his face to stop his shaking, "I'm scared…"

The Sister looked around her, the orphanage was in an absolute distress. The toddlers were crying, most of the younger kids were seeking comfort with the older ones, and this was only the boy's room.

"There, there, Elijah," Julia beggingly said as she picked the boy up to calm him down, "Only rain, nothing more. You are safe."

But just as she said that, a flash of light blinded them from the windows, before an ear splitting roar shook them to their very core. The children screamed and cried again, even the older ones were panicking to each other.

"It's okay, everyone! We are protected by the Lord! The storm will not touch us here!" Julia cried as more children ran up to her for comfort, their little hands reached out to hold her own desperately. Before she could be overwhelmed by another wave of scared little boys, she gathered them together and looked at them in the eye, "I am going to see to the other Sisters, okay? I will be right back. Behave yourselves when I'm gone."

She needed time alone, counting back all the possible windows that she had forgotten to lock, and she couldn't do that while tending to dozens of scared little children. Frankly, she was worried, this storm did not sound natural. She had experienced storms before, once she remembered almost getting struck by lightning in a moving cart if it wasn't for the tarp that shielded her from it, but somehow the strength of this storm and the wind that howled and hissed with it just seemed… wrong.

Immediately did Julia got outside and closed the door to the boy's dormitory. She could still hear the faint low winds even in the corridors. Though what almost made her jump was that a running figure just went past her.

A little girl had just sped past her, running barefoot upon the stone cold floor. Her raven black hair jumping up and down as she did. It was…

"Harmony?!" Julia yelped, trying to match her voice to their ever building distance, "What in the Lord's name are you doing outside?! It's not safe–"

"THERE'S A MAN OUT THERE!" The little girl shouted back, already disappearing when she turned at a corner, "I SAW HIM FROM MY WINDOW!"

"A man?! Harmony, come back, what are you talking about?!" Julia lifted her dress and began running as well.

The little girl had always been a fast runner, even faster than the boys her age. For Julia, it was a challenge to keep up, especially for someone who had never run a day in her life like her. But Harmony was up to something, and whatever it was it could be dangerous. Though Julia knew that she was never one to lie, so what did she meant when she said that she saw a man outside?

Another, more robust and older figure appeared in front of her just as she had reached the main building. Sister Patricia just came out of the other end of the crossing, lifting up her skirt as well meaning that she had also been frantically trying to reach this place.

"Good heavens! I've never seen such a storm before!" Sister Patricia said, cold sweat running down her face from the edge of her veil. She was scared. In all honesty, Julia was, too. She could barely hear her own thoughts during this madness of a rain.

"Do you have any idea what is happening?" Sister Patricia said when the two got closer to each other.

When Julia realized she was being questioned, she quickly turned to her colleague, "Not a clue, Dear Sister. Whatever it is we should just sit this one out and let it pass."

"That's what I'm worried about, Dear Sister. What if this storm never passes? The nearby town is half an hour walk from here, and we can't refill our rations in this kind of rain," The elderly nun shook her head, lightly gasping for breath after her jog. But then something seemingly caught her eye from the direction of the church door. "Hey! What's that kid doing there?"

Julia snapped her head towards the door, and right behind it was certainly Harmony. She was just standing there, unmoving. Her little head glancing back and forth from the window, her silhouette falling at the giant redwood door from the light of the altar candles.

Before Julia could call out to her, something that was drowned in the hellish noises of the rain was heard. It was only brief, so Julia wasn't sure if she had heard correctly. But when it came the second time, Julia was sure of one thing: someone was knocking on the door.

The Sisters were frozen in their feet, but when Harmony approached the door and reached for the knob, their eyes were as big as plates.

"HARMONY, DON'T OPEN THAT!" Julia screamed on top of her lungs, fear and panic overwhelming her when she thought about just what was calling for them on the other side.

The younger of the two Sisters pulled Harmony backwards with enough force to send her flying. Then, Patricia went to slam the door shut and locked it for good. But it was too late…

One leather gloved hand creeped out from the gap of the giant redwood door just above their heads, wet noises of water dripping from its fingers. Slowly the door creaked open, and the Sisters took a step back, with Harmony being tightly embraced in one of their arms. Slowly, the smell of rain filled their noses, along with a stench that reeked of iron. A strong wind pushed them backwards as the door became half-opened, and from the darkness of the outside world, a dark figure stumbled into the light of the candles.

It was a man, certainly. His height and shape confirmed it. But his features were hidden under a black neck gaiter, even his eyes were blocked by his dark hood, with its edges seemingly ripped away by something sharp. But what was peculiar about him was that, rather than appearing as wholly man, plantlife seemed to grow all over his figure. There were brown roots constricting against his silver chestplate armor, brown and red dirt seemingly tainting every joints and edges, ending up in small branches and leaves at his shoulder plates and boots. Moss and roots were growing on his drenched cloak, and on the side of his head was a protruding branch, splitting in several directions with different amounts of leaves on each end, like some kind of odd horns on a deer.

Harmony's eyes caught something interesting about the man's attire, particularly the sheathed two edged sword on his hip. Its hilt was the only thing she could recognize, but even that in itself was hard to pinpoint just what the sword was supposed to be: the grip was made out of interlocking wood, like someone had twisted the roots of a giant tree to make it look like that. There was no pommel in sight, the interlocking wood merely spread out at the end. Harmony had never heard of a sword with a hilt like that, much less seen it.

Just from a glimpse everyone was able to recognize that this man was a swordsman, some would say he was a knight if it weren't for his lack of banner. Not only that, the other thing that made them hesitate to call him so was that this man was simply… _overgrown_.

When he looked up, his strikingly sharp eyes were visible. The light from the wax candles seemingly danced on their glassy surfaces. While still darkened by his hood and partly covered by stringy moss-green hair that was filled with little clumps of dirt, his eyes burned the color of ember.

Harmony could feel Julia trembling. The young woman held the little girl tighter as her lips parted and met continuously, trying to find her voice.

Then, lightning had struck the air again. It flashed and roared almost at the same time, and the sheer intensity of it made the whole world seemingly shook. Harmony could feel her heart hammering against her chest. She knew that rainstorms were nothing more than a very heavy drizzle, several times she had dared herself to run out of the church and into the open to challenge the mighty thunderbolts themselves, but now she was starting to get scared.

The Overgrown Knight turned to them, his muddy unshaven face darkening again, "You lot need to run. Take as many kids as you can carry. Get as far away from here as possible." His voice was deep and husky, like it was running through sandpaper.

It took a while before either Julia or Patricia could process his word. And even then, the only words that they could manage to let out was; "… W-what?"

Another flash of light, followed quickly by another ear-splitting explosion. Harmony closed her eyes, finding herself not brave enough to fight it anymore. She waited for the roar to pass but... it didn't. The lightning seemingly cried, screeching a terrifying tune proving it was all too obvious that there was something out there _alive_.

The strong winds that scraped the walls and banged on the windows were starting to speak. Harmony and the two Sisters could hear it letting out a high-pitched guttural moan that echoed around them. It was getting louder, and louder, and louder until all they could think about when they heard it was as if millions of human souls, men, women, and children, were being pulled out of their skins slowly by the storm.

And in the next second the church shook violently, stopping momentarily for everyone to regain their balance, before it shook again, just as fierce. The wax candles fell from their altar, the stone deity did nothing to stop any of this, and as the light from the fire began dancing violently before it hit the ground, the main building was enveloped in darkness. Something humongous seemingly had banged its whole weight against the world. Julia could hear the church creak, the rafters felt like it was almost starting to snap and break. Before they knew it, the door towards the corridor at one end of the crossing swung open, and dark bluish light, followed by violent flying raindrops and a strong gust of wind.

The Overgrown Knight looked up towards the roof, where the lightning screeched and wailed like a human. Harmony's eyes were affixed on him, blood pumping quickly to her head, unable to think.

Then, the man said the three words that would haunt Harmony for the rest of her life, "Tch… too late."

Before any of the Sisters could react out of their apparent shock, the Knight rushed past them towards the church crossing. For a brief moment when Harmony stared at his eyes, it was as if he was overcome by a sudden uncontainable rush, but it wasn't fear. It was what she herself would describe as a sense of duty.

Julia instinctively followed with Patricia falling behind while trying all the same. The Knight disappeared into the open corridor door. But to their surprise, there was no corridor, not anymore.

It led to an open field, as part of the corridor wall had been seemingly blown away by something strong. Julia stopped in her tracks, still holding Harmony tightly by the hand, not daring to let go. The storm blasted waters on their face, they could feel the strong wind pushing them back. It was terrifyingly dark outside, the outline of the mountains, the trees, and the grasses were dancing and moving to the madness. There were parts of the wall scattered throughout the wet plains, catching the hard raindrops that showered them mercilessly. Though Julia had a feeling that it wasn't just the corridor that was blown away.

Unknowingly, Harmony could feel the grip on her little hand loosen, before Julia let go of it completely. The young woman ran towards the storm through the door and the giant hole on the corridor wall, her colleague could only watch in disbelief. The little orphan girl screamed at her, calling her name, but her voice was drowned out by the howling of the winds.

The Sister was huffing when she breathed, fighting back the blinding raindrops that continuously struck her face, and the winds that chilled her body. She needed to see, she _had_ to make sure. Her veil was getting heavier, and so was her dress, yet she pushed through the tall grass. Adrenaline was pumping in her chest, fearing for the worst. Her leather shoes then stopped on a patch of mud, halting her completely in the middle of the violent storm. The wind should've blown her away, and the thunderous roars of the lightning that continuously struck around her could make many men fall into their knees. But what she was witnessing in front of her was more bewildering than any lightning.

It was the part of the church where the orphanage was built, but it was nothing but partly ruins now, catching the storm from the hole in the roof that was ripped open with enough for to take away even the walls that connected it. And hovering just above it, Julia could see a face, shaped from what seemed to be descending storm clouds, rotating its shapeless body and slithering like an amalgam of a snake and thick grey smoke. Looming down on the orphanage, The Face in the Storm smiled, and the winds around it started to screech and the lightning cracked a thunderous laughter. An expression that could only be described as malice was etched on the entity's face. Julia watched as it kept hovering down towards the dorm rooms, closer to the giant tears on the roof, and at that moment she started to hear the collective screams of children.

Unable to think, she instinctively prayed in her heart with all her might. Thought that, too, turned out to be futile, for her mind was already muddled with shock. Her body refused to move, and even if it could, she couldn't imagine herself being able to stop an entity such as that. There was virtually nothing she could do but to watch her precious children getting consumed by a demon of the storm.

She was scared, close to crying, yet any voice she tried to muster could only came out as a pathetic croak. And even then, it was still in the mercy of the madness of the storm.

"Vile beast," the voice of the Overgrown Knight was heard, even through the cries of the wind, "Your end is nigh."

When another lightning struck again, the outline of a hooded man perched upon the ruins of what seemed to be the roof of the orphanage came to view. On his right hand was a sword, yet it did not gleam under the flashes of thunder, as if the blade absorbed every bit of light it touched. The Knight stood strong, facing apparent evil.

And just like that, The Face in the Storm turned its attention from its prey to the Overgrown Knight, and Julia saw that its expression contorted to the extremes when it saw the Knight in his glory. The howling of the wind became a low but rumbling growl. It was angry.

The Face in the Storm then moved its mouth, and the voice that spoke almost blew Julia's eardrums away.

"**PEST."**

In a split second, the Overgrown Knight disappeared, and the pieces of the roof that he was standing on was suddenly blown away from an unnaturally strong gust of wind. The moment the debris was sent flying, Julia got overcome by a strong knockback force, sending her falling backwards and rolling away through the mud, screaming. When before she had thought she was dreaming a nightmare, she realized that nightmares were much, _much _better than what she was experiencing.

It was apparent that The Face in the Storm was capable of speech, and perhaps thinking to an extent. Yet even without them Julia knew that this thing could take live. If not, then why was the swordsman here?

There was a low thud near where Julia lied, and when she looked up through her drenched face she saw the Overgrown Swordsman in a kneeling position. His sword adjacent next to him. The nun couldn't see his face, the wind was blowing away the moss from his dirty ragged cloak which in turn made the air around him filled with green leaflike particles flying in the air.

Another thunderous roar broke out of the windy madness, The Face in the Storm was staring at them with its grotesque face contorting to shapes she imagined a human couldn't make.

The Overgrown Knight swung his sword, now holding its hilt in reverse, before running headfirst into The Face with superhuman speed.

**BWOOOSH! **Went the sound of the wind. And with it came raining down the debris from the church as The Face had seemingly punched away the bell tower.

Stone and wood of huge sizes were raining down the muddy field like a projectile. Any living thing unfortunate enough to stand on its path would be sure to drop dead. But the Overgrown Knight merely raised his sword at an incoming debris, and he slashed and broke it into two.

Julia could not believe what she was seeing. No man in the world would have managed to do that. There was no doubt that the Knight had more to him than he appeared to be.

The Face in the Storm roared, his shapeless body shifted and turned, creating lightning that began to strike madly at anything they could touch. Then, two clumps of storm clouds began to build mass from above, building and slithering around each other before forming some sort of grotesque limbs. Both limbs swung down and struck the ground, and as the world shook, a powerful gust of wind exploding everywhere. More lightning began to occur, ones that could even blow the soil off of the ground, creating more flying debris.

The Overgrown Knight kept pressing forward. Charging towards the devil without stopping even for a moment. The hurricane blew at his cloak, and in every step that he took, more small leaves flew everywhere.

The scenery was chaos, no human alive on this world could witness the events unfolding in front of them and come out sane enough to tell the tale. Yet there was some beauty between it, like watching a clash of gods that most people could only dream of.

Closer and closer did the Knight and The Face got, and a second later they began clashing in close quarters. One man against a force of nature. His sword swung every incoming strike from The Face's limbs, and whatever the blade was made out of could apparently hurt it, as The Face screeched in a million human's terror.

In that moment, Julia regained her composure, and she remembered something. Her head shot at what's left of the orphanage building, and quickly got up before rushing towards it in panic.

"BOYS!" She cried on top of her lungs, trying to match the sound of thunder and hurricane, "GIRLS!"

When the nun got beside it, she saw that the door to the building had been destroyed, and the only way out was to climb the wall to the opening on the roof. She made no second thoughts before taking the first step on a piece of debris. Slowly she got up, not caring that the sharp rocks were scraping at her palm. When she got to the top, she was immediately overcome with relief; both the orphans of the boy and the girl's dorm hadn't been taken by The Face. Though that relief did not last long. Julia saw that some of them were trapped between a fallen roof arch and rafters.

Without a second word, she jumped down from the roof towards the wreckage of the building's interior.

Her shoes landed with a wet plopping noise, rainwater was filling up the room from the open hole in the roof. She could hear the scared whimpers of the children when they saw her. All of them were lying in a fetal position, some even not daring to let go of the other's touch.

As Julia got closer, the children wailed to her. But they couldn't seem to move. Their knees were scraped, some of them had bruises of impact on their bodies, and Julia dared to bet that they were chilled under this merciless weather.

"Hold on. I'll get you all out of here, please believe me," The Sister cooed, comforting the crying children and those who were hurt.

However, Sister had to free those who were trapped under the debris. They could be in more danger than the others. She quickly rushed over to the piece of fallen roof that trapped two of her orphans behind it, before calling to them from the gaps of the wreckage.

"Children! Children! It's okay! Shush! I'm here now, I'll get both of you out!" Julia called out to them. She had no time to lose, she could see water building up inside that wreckage space faster than the ones outside.

There were two orphans, both girls, and it seemed that one had her legs trapped between the fallen rafters. The other, older one was speaking to her, seemingly to comfort her friend. But out of the two, the one whom Julia saw as the most nerve-stricken was the one who was comforting the other.

"Girls! Listen to me! I need both of you to help me get you out, okay?" Julia's shaky voice called out again.

She was shivering, the chill of the rain was starting to get to her. She just needed to pray that the Overgrown Knight could buy her enough time to take the kids away from the church and into the nearby forest. With what's left of her strength she tried pushing up the rafters, chances were she could ease the weight on the trapped orphan's leg. Then, she'd find Sister Patricia and Harmony and take them both-

**CRASH!**

Something had just flew beside her, crashing violently against the wall in front of her. What happened next was completely unexpected; the building began crumbling down as if that particular wall was the only thing that had been keeping the rest of it together.

She immediately shielded her eyes from the dust flying about from the impact. She could hear what's left of the building's support beams creak, making her think that everything was going to crumble down, before it stopped completely.

Julia slowly cleared her vision, raindrops still falling on her face. As her mind slowly started to process the state of chaos around her, she saw a glimmer of silver and torn up mossy greens from between the piles of debris. And when it came to her of what happened, a loud rumbling voice spoke to her.

"**SAD,"** The Face in the Storm said as its thunders cackled. The formless, gigantic entity hovered ever so slowly towards the nun, **"TWO MONTHS IT TOOK YOU TO FIND ME, LESS THAN AN HOUR TO TAKE YOU DOWN. THIS KNIGHT IS AN APOSTLE HUNTER? THEN CONSIDER ME SORELY DISAPPOINTED!"**

The Overgrown Knight did not budge, his body was as limp as dead, buried under tonnes of stone and wood. His hood was covering his face, Julia was not sure if he was really dead or not.

But it all mattered just the same, The Face had won.

It got closer to Julia, its previously contorted face turned into a wide smile when The Face caught sight of the little children huddled together in fear, as if it was being presented with an irrefusable buffet, **"HOWEVER, NEVER HAVE I FELT SO INCONVENIENCED DURING MY LIFETIME OF HUNTING FOR FOOD."**

It seemingly found satisfaction hearing them scream in terror, then, it turned to Julia, who was falling to her knees trying pathetically to support herself on the piece of the fallen roof. Her sight aligned with the abyss that The Face had instead of eyes, the eye of the storm was spiraling into a singularity at each holes, slithering like worms without any apparent form. It was like she was hypnotized just by looking at it, making her unable to turn away.

But for a split second she noticed something far in front of her, sitting half submerged on a nearby puddle that accumulated on a crack on the floor, the lightless blade with the twisted hilt. Millions of thoughts ran through her mind in that second. Should she pick it up? From what she saw, it was the only thing that could hurt The Face in the Storm. But where should she strike? How should she strike? Was there even a point? Did she even have more choices at that point?

Unknown to her, The Face had noticed when she glimpsed at the sword. Julia lifted her head up to see that the thing was grinning at her, The Face then spoke to them, **"I'LL MAKE SURE TO **_**ENJOY **_**DEVOURING **_**YOU**_**!"**

Julia knew the end was nearer than she had anticipated. Much nearer. There was no running away, it was futile to do so. She would die with all the children she had spent all her life caring for. In her last moments she closed her eyes, regretting that she never had more choices in her lifetime that would not have led her to this moment. She could feel The Face inching closer, instinctively, she screamed, not being able to hold her fright any longer. All she could pray for was to have everything coming to an end.

But it didn't come. Instead what she heard was silence.

Julia could still feel her heart lodged in her throat, her breaths a collection of short plentiful gasps. The raindrops that poured down her face were stirring with her tears, vision hazy no matter how much she tried to focus her sight.

One glimpse was all it took to make out a small figure standing further away. Even the children were quiet at the sight of it.

Raven black hair glistening when touched by rain, its small figure facing its back against both Julia and the orphans, the white dress that it wore were darkened and stained by the storm and its two little barefooted legs muddy from running through the wet plains. In its hands was the twisted lightless sword, trembling while making a defensive stance.

The Face in the Storm had stopped, seemingly dazed by the sudden appearance of Harmony out of nowhere. The entity made no move to approach the children any further.

"G-get away…" The little girl squeaked out in a shaky voice, "DON'T COME NEAR!"

Unbeknownst to Julia, Harmony was trembling on her two little feet, even her grip on the twisted root of the blade felt like it could slip out and fall at any second, Though the little girl was scared, she held back from crying. In her eyes burned the sense of duty, the willingness to fight even when she knew she could not clearly win, even in the face of armageddon.

However, The Face caught sight of her apparent fear, and started to screech and cackle disturbingly. It smiled grotesquely again, but this time Julia could see that even its eyes were contorting into a look of pure ecstasy, as if for a second it had considered Harmony to be entertaining.

"**NOT EVEN THE HUNTER CAN TAKE ME DOWN! BUT YOU SURMISE THAT A PUNY MORTAL WHO CAN'T EVEN HOLD A SWORD PROPERLY, STAND A CHANCE?"** The Face mocked, the wind around them whistling into a morbid laugh of sorts.

Julia noticed that Harmony stumbled back at the sheer intensity of the entity's voice.

Then, The Face swung down its gigantic shapeless limb towards the ground, shaking the world around it. It's grin still stuck to its face, splitting its head shape from what one could only describe from ear to ear. Lightning began to strike everything chaotically, not giving Harmony any rest. The Face was enjoying this.

"**FINE! IF WHAT YOU WISH IS TO DIE PAINFULLY BY MY HANDS, THEN SO BE IT!"**

In an instant, the wind shattered the air, and The Face was hovering towards Harmony with a speed most humans couldn't comprehend. There was no time to brace for impact, it was charging monstrously fast.

But Harmony lifted the twisted sword, screaming a cry at the top of her lungs. Her head was filled with millions of doubts, but they all went silent when she stared at the abyssal eyes of The Face. Everything became lull, there was just her and the thing in front of her. No other chances, not even one thought of running. She was facing the storm with nothing but pure hopelessness.

Picturing the body of the Knight in her mind, Julia realized what fate Harmony had sealed herself. And even if it was futile, the nun couldn't bear losing her. She reached her hand out, trying to muster some sort of force to pull Harmony back. Julia shouted her name, but the storm had reached too close. The looming face of malice was just a mere berth away.

Then, as if time stopped, a figure appeared next to Harmony. With a low husky voice, the Overgrown Knight spoke, "You've done well to buy me some time."

Everything was moving at a fraction of a second, and with her jaw dropping in an awestruck expression, Harmony watched as the Overgrown Knight was visibly covered in small flying leaves, orbiting him like a sand in an hourglass. Even in the darkness of the storm, as the violent winds barreled their faces with heavy rain, the Overgrown Knight's figure was outlined by a dark green fluorescent hue.

He reached down and grabbed Harmony by her clenched fist, which was still holding onto the hilt of his twisted sword. His other hand reached out towards The Face in the Storm, where he began to utter a set of words that miraculously made the hellish outcry of the hurricane silent.

"_Conjuration Spell… Ninth Echelon… Storm of Vengeance!_"

From the palm of his dirty gloved hand, something exploded forward. Harmony could feel her eardrums pop, whatever the Knight did made the air pressure around them drop to an exponential amount. Then, she heard The Face in the Storm screeched yet again, this time it felt painful, full of suffering, as another equally massive storm spiraled out of the Overgrown Knight's hand and consumed whatever it could from the shapeless malicious entity.

Harmony was suddenly lifted up from the ground. She started to panic, thinking that she might be blown away from the sheer force of two hurricanes colliding. But the Overgrown Knight flung his arm around her torso and held her tightly by his side. Harmony glanced at him, but the Knight never broke contact from his foe once.

Little by little, the raindrops started to disperse, being blown away by the spell that the Overgrown Knight had conjured. And along with it, the thunderous roars of lightning that had once destroyed a huge portion of the grass fields. The ear-splitting screech was starting to turn more human, yet equally as painful, as the entity was being pulled apart mass by mass until what was left of it was surrounded by the eye of the magical hurricane.

Harmony watched as the spell from the Knight's hand started to lose power, until he lowered it completely, and what it left behind was a quiet summer night in June. She could still feel a low drizzle hitting her drenched cheeks, but she didn't feel as cold, as the wind calmed down until it became nothing. Everything became clearer for her to see, and she realized that the clerical church was only left with the main building still intact while the rest of it had been destroyed to the point where no one could recognize what it once was.

The world was in halcyon. Nothing but silence and the sound of dripping water from Harmony's soaked dress. The chaos had stopped. The Overgrown Knight gently placed her down, helping her on her two, still trembling feet. His gloved hand encapsulated her grip, before taking back his twisted sword, before leaving her on her own.

Harmony tried to control her breathing, knowing that in the least she could calm her already shocked body and mind, but somehow she couldn't tear her eyes away from the sight in front of her. The Overgrown Knight approached a new lone figure on the patch of tall grass, positioned on its fours and evidently skinny, frail, and naked. Clearly, the figure was a human, with glistening pale skin that glinted wetly under the moonlight. It's head was looking down, showing only a patch of sloven brunette hair.

"You should know better than to avert your eyes from the Apostle Hunter," Said the Knight in a cold menacing tone as he approached the lone figure in the grass, "You ought to have tried to finish me off when you had the chance, but your carelessness gave me enough time to fortify my chant."

The figure shifted its position, sitting on its knees with its head still lowered down. But when it spoke, it spoke a human male's voice, chalky yet deep, and clearly exhausted, "But can you blame me? You of all people should know the hunger we apostles suffer in every second of our lives."

The male figure laughed under his breath, glancing just a little towards the Knight's face, onyx green eyes shimmering as they made contact. He was young, perhaps younger than Julia, but the color of his eyes spoke differently.

"You were once a respected man, Payton Billé," The Knight called the figure's name, "Then you made a grave sin as you altered your humanity, exchanging your mortal life for a selfish desire. Therefore your life has forfeited, and it is up to me to deliver judgement. It matters not to me who you once were, anymore."

"Heh," the young man named Payton Billé chuckled, "You think you know everything? You hunt us down until there is none of us left, yet evil will still roam this world no matter what you do. Tell me, what fulfilment can you possibly get from living a life not knowing your purpose? If not for justice, then for what reason are you still fighting, Sir Knight?"

"Enough of this," The Overgrown Knight snapped, lifting his lightless blade up to Payton Billé's face, "I am putting and end to your life in this world. You've made your choice."

Payton stared blankly at the Knight, his lips began uttering the word "Choice…"

But to his surprise, the Knight unsheathed his sword, before lifting his gloved hand again. With his eyes glaring daggers at his target, the Overgrown Knight started chanting, "_Conjuration spell… Eight echelon... Demiplane!_"

Payton's little grin fell apart as the grass around him began to glow a thin white hue. Shaping the form of a pentagram, teen feet in diameter, the light started to hum, before glowing brighter and brighter, and the intensity of the noise became stronger with it. With each second passing, the brunette suddenly started to feel lighter, and lighter, and lighter until he started to see himself hovering up the grass. Orbs of light of numerous sizes dispelled from the pentagram, like little bubbles orbiting the young man trapped inside the conjuring.

"You… what?" Payton breathed out in apparent distress, "What are you doing?!"

"Banishing you," The Overgrown Knight said with an uncompassionate tone, his hand still reached out in front of him, not breaking the focus of his conjurements, "Your life has lost meaning. You've strayed off the path and became something inhuman. You've taken lives in a state of hunger, and many more out of hatred. Mercy is not a gift I will grant you."

"I will never forget this!" Payton Billé cried in anger, as if realizing what the Knight was doing to him.

His voice was a disturbing mix of lightning and wind, even when the aberrant humming was the loudest it got. The orbs were now enveloping him in an extraordinarily fast moving matrix, overlaying him completely with painfully bright light. Before he disappeared into the beam of light, his face contorted into a ghastly expression similar to The Face in the Storm.

The humming stopped, disappearing with a loud unnatural cry. Before what was left of the young man was a burnt pentagram mark on the grass.

The Overgrown Knight stood looming over the fruition of his actions. The source of the entity was no longer able to disturb the peace. The evil had passed and it seemed like it wouldn't be back for a long time.

With a sigh, the tall man turned heels and walked the opposite direction. His job here had been done, as it was apparent that he had nothing else to do than to hunt. He then heard voices from the hill where he once stood. From between the ruined walls of the orphanage dormitories, his gaze fell upon the clerical nun Julia, and how she was still tending to her children in a state of alarm. Her other colleague was there, she who seemed to have been hiding in the main building just moments before when the chaos was unfolding, although the little girl with raven black hair was nowhere to be seen. The two were seemingly helping each other lifting fallen rafters and walls to free the rest of the trapped orphans.

"There you go! Come out, little one!" Julia cried in relief, as another one of her children successfully freed himself from his trapped position. The little boy quickly rushed towards her and hugged her wet dress, before crying loudly into it. Julia lowered her torso and hugged him back, "Shush, there, there. It's okay now. We're okay."

"What a nightmare…" Patricia the elderly nun wailed in anguish as she tended to the other children and the physical traumas they caught, "We have to move somewhere else now! Oh… how could this have happened to us?"

"It will be alright, Dear Sister," Julia reassured her, while holding a younger girl in her arms, "We're all alive. We will manage ourselves just fine."

Then, she heard heavy footsteps approaching her. It was the Overgrown Knight, coming into the wreckage through the open gaps in the walls. His root covered leather boots creaked the already broken floorings as he closed his distance towards the nun.

Julia could only say nothing, she was too awestruck by his presence after seeing all his abilities in battle. "C-can I help you, Sir Knight?"

For a moment he was silent, only keeping contact with the battered and drenched nun as she put down the orphan that was once in her arm. His ember colored eyes followed the orphan girl as she ran back towards her friends, one of them was sitting on the tall grass next to a wall with a bruised and cut leg. He averted his gaze again, and saw the rest of the scared orphans huddling together for warmth with the other nun tending them. Yet he still couldn't spot that one particular orphan with black hair.

"There is a town not far from here," The Overgrown Knight said when he turned his glance back to Julia. He then proceeded to point his dirty glove towards the direction in the woods, "Once I arrive I will inform them of what happened here. With their help, it will be easier for you to collect the valuables that you've lost. I will see to it that they present you with enough rooms for your orphans and yourself, until your church has finished reconstructing."

Julia blinked, seemingly in loss for words, "O-of course! Thank you so much, kind sir. But I don't know how we can be expected to pay for-"

"That should not matter," The Knight cut her off, "Clerical churches are often not charged if any tragedy were to happen to their religious edifices. If not, then I believe this much shall suffice."

He reached to grab Julia's hand and placed it in front of her, where he presented a palm-sized leather pouch that weighted more than she had anticipated. It rattled when she moved her hand, the contents she assumed had very expensive gold coins stacked on top of each other.

"A-are you sure, Sir Knight?" Julia gasped in bewilderment when the Knight nodded his head, "Oh, thank you so much! Lord bless you, Sir Knight! This will help all of us, I'm sure!"

"If we're done, then I'll be going," The Overgrown Knight responded, before bidding her goodbye, the twig on his head rustled when he turned his heels and walked away. He had no intentions of staying long in this part of the country. His eyes were burning with duty, meaning there were more things that he needed to settle.

But just as he was leaping past the broken wall, someone called out to him, "Wait! Mister Knight!"

He recognized that voice. When he turned behind him he saw that a raven haired girl was standing there, looking at him straight in the eyes with a hopeful expression. Though there was something else, too. Like a hidden motive under her innocent appearance.

"What is it?" He asked her, thinking that whatever she had to say could be worth his time.

"Please take me as your apprentice!" Harmony yelled out with an auspicious look on her glistening face.

The Overgrown Knight said nothing, his expression could only be described as being unfathomable, even more so when the hood of the mossy cloak that he wore was darkening half of his face. But it was apparent that he was thinking of something, for his response came not long after his silence.

"Have you used a sword before?" He said.

Harmony took a moment to answer, coming off as if she was taken aback by the question. "N-no."

"Been places? Explored newer continents?" The Knight asked again.

"No…" Harmony started hanging her head, but that hopeful look was still there.

"Seen people die? Right in front of your eyes?"

There was an awful pause, even Julia who was watching them from a distance could feel the tense atmosphere between the two. This time, Harmony was completely silent, her gaze refusing to look at the Overgrown Knight's ember ones directly.

Reminiscing back to the moment she stood against The Face in the Storm, she realized how pathetic she must have seen, trembling on her feet with her grip loose against the hilt of the Knight's sword. The thunderous mocks that Payton told her was still echoing in her mind, like a lingering phantom eating away at her pride. What would've happened if the Overgrown Knight didn't interfere in time? Either Julia, the other children, or Harmony herself could've died. Just thinking of it made her stomach churn. She couldn't hope to bear watching either of them getting ripped apart by the rain, their screams mixing into the horrifying screech of thunder.

"Listen, child. I've never seen anyone who would stand up to an apostle at your age with a sword and not turn heel and run the opposite direction to save themselves," The Overgrown Knight chastised. Though Harmony knew that he wasn't trying to flatter her, "And the fact that you did it to protect others, I find to be very admirable. However, once you've decided that you want to tread that path, there is no going back. The future that you choose will determine what you'll become, and if this is the choice that you will take, there will be nothing for you but challenges that are more difficult than the last one. Some might not even survive the first one, others will be disconnected from their families in order to fulfill their duty."

At the mention of a family, Harmony looked past her shoulder towards Sister Julia, Sister Patricia, and the orphans that she grew up with. She knew everyone in that place, some she knew she had a lifelong debt with. Her eyes then met with Julia's, and the two immediately recognized each other's longing look. Is she truly ready to leave all of this behind?

"What is your answer?" The Knight asked her, this time more straightforward.

"I'm…" Harmony stopped, her heart lodged in her throat. She couldn't finish what she wanted to say, she wasn't even sure if she was fine with what she will say. She pursed her lips, unable to truly open them again.

"Go with him,"

Harmony's eyes snapped open, turning her head towards the soothing voice of Sister Julia. The nun smiled at the raven haired girl. As she approached her, Julia's hand grabbed at the hem of her drenched veil, before exposing her bright sunlight colored hair. She kneeled down in front of Harmony, before holding both her hands and cupped them inside her own.

"You have your whole life lying in front of you," Said Julia as her blue eyes stared deep into Harmony's emerald ones, "When we were cornered by that thing, I truly thought that it was the end, that I didn't have any other choice. But you proved me wrong, Harmony. You can still choose your future. An uncertain future, yes, but you still have a choice. You can become whatever you want to be."

"But how can I know if I'm making the right choice?" Harmony asked, eyebrows furrowing in uncertainty.

"Just follow your heart," Julia's hand flew behind the raven haired girl's head, and connected their foreheads together, "Nobody knows for sure what their actions will breed. But if it's you, I am sure that you can be the world's greatest knight. You are the strongest person I've ever met, Harmony. Never forget that."

The raven haired girl burst into tears, her hands shaking as she held Julia's tighter. There really was no telling what her fate had in store for her, how many more times she needed to fight in order to fight. The anxiety of the unknown loomed over her, realizing the things that could've been and will become. But, despite all of that, she was truly happy. An indescribable warmth bloomed inside her chest, freeing her from the suffocating perturbation from the storm.

A sudden flash of light disturbed her, and when she distanced her forehead from Julia she could see that the sky had turned into a deep blue hue. Something bright burned over the horizon, yet no sign of the sun. Tomorrow had come, and the people of the church were still standing strong, despite having their safe haven in ruins.

In the middle of the hill where their church once stood, all Harmony could see was a brand new day. The Overgrown Knight seemingly had his gaze upon her for some time now.

"Tend to your fellow orphans, young one. Ready them to move to town towards the sunrise," Said the Knight, "Then, I will return to pick you up. If you must, collect any belongings that you wish to bring along. However, I must warn you that excess baggage will only make you a burden. I have no interest in training such people."

"Ah! Yes!" Harmony yelped, seemingly taken aback when he called out to her, "Sir Knight… will I truly be leaving them behind forever?"

The Overgrown Knight did not answer at once. Though he did seem like he knew what to say already, "Did you not hear what your Sister said? You never truly know what your future holds. We can only be certain of what we will sacrifice, not what we gain."

The little girl looked down towards her bare, muddy feet. She could feel the sting of small pebbles and rocks as it scraped at her soles, letting it bury the feeling of pensiveness inside her heart. It was pointless to pretend that she did not feel any remorse when she chose to leave behind everything she currently had. But there was another, more dominant thought that cleared her mind of any diffidence. The feeling of Julia's touch overfilled her, when Harmony closed her eyes she could see the Sister's bright blonde hair shining at the meeting of a morning sun, smiling encouragingly at the raven haired girl, along with Sister Patricia, and her other family members. All of which she loved very, very much.

Harmony's eyes shifted, looking back towards her Sister again. Her emerald green eyes burned as she clenched her fists, while still holding the nun's hand.

"When I come back, I swear I will become the greatest knight ever," She said, eyes locking with the nun, "Just you wait, Sister."

The winds of June whistled past their ears, the lingering smell of rain and thunder covered the field of grass, returning the world to its rightful form. The showering of sunlight glistened as it bounced off of the wet debris. Little by little, the turning of the night reached the inside of the main building, lighting the view of a destroyed altar. Wax candles scattered on the wet dripping floor, brass holders and candelabra dented from the fall. However, not one could compare to the damage done to the altar itself, as the gradines that held the objects in place had fissured, most likely from the tremor of the storm. And the statue had lost its footing, seemingly having landed headfirst towards the cold floor. It's body broke into two pieces of soft granite, its dust taken by the water currents from the interior floods like blood washed in rain.

No longer could the deity present a meaningful welcome, as it's hands were now stumps. A crude representation of God overthrown, from the dissention of man into evil, like cracks on the deity's face.

* * *

**Hi, I'm back.**

**As I'm sure you all have probably noticed, I've been absent from FF for a while now. And while a great amount of my story is still unfinished, I decided to start working on something else. I know, I'm sorry for being so late in my response, and I'm sorry for my lack of updates. There are no certainty that I will continue writing the rest of my stories, and I'm sorry for that as well.**

**Now this one is dedicated to a very loyal Discord server. A work that I've been... Honestly, this was just written on a whim. But I'm really grateful for the people giving suggestions and showing support at the idea, even though I was just talking at the top of my head.**

**If you don't know, this work is a fanfic of another fanfic, which is also an SYOC fanfic of My**** Hero Academia. Now before I let you all digest that, the characters here are based off of the OCs which are submitted to that MHA fanfic, and if you read that one you can see that many of the characters here are already starred there. If you haven't read Purpose of a Hero by Buixy I suggest you go there and check him out, his work is really good, and if you're interested in submitting an OC, he's still opening submissions for upperclassmen and villains.**

**If you wanna see this as a standalone DND fic without having any relations to MHA, at the least give credit to the author and his story this was based on.**

**This first chapter is not yet beta-ed, however a good friend Hiatus is doing it right now. Big thanks to Buixy, of course, along many others at the creation of this fic.**

**If you loved the first chapter, please leave a follow and favorite, leave a review, tell me what you think of it. Criticisms are welcome. And I'll see you all next chapter.**

_Suggested Related Stories:_

\- Purpose of a Hero, by Buixy

_-_ Forge Days, by Cyber Taco

\- Purposeless 3-in-1, by Wan323


	2. Prologue Arc, Ch2 The Owl Tells

_**Prologue Arc: The Olden Days**_

_**Chapter Two**_

_**"The Owl Tells"**_

* * *

Lydia was an obedient child. If you were to ask anyone from her village, a small community in the neck of the mountain's woodlands filled with uneven leveled buildings descending roads, there was no doubt that all of them would agree that you'd never find a little girl more compliant than the odd child, Lydia.

As far as any six-year-old children's favorite pastime were, Lydia was the only one who was out of the circle. She didn't play catch near the edge of the woods, nor did she run around chasing locusts, or climb up the highest cherry tree in the village. She often found herself sewing instead, being the only one in the town who knew how to. Her odd nature did not come from the differences in her hobby, but from the fact that she always seemed quite distant while doing anything. She never bothered to play with the other kids, or even taking up a new hobby. Nobody had ever seen her raise her voice, or defend herself in the face of disrespect, and she never cried much, or at all for that matter. Everyone thinks that she is hiding something in her silence, and while some wondered and questioned her about it, most simply don't want anything to do with it.

But from her perspective, it was nothing less but actions that will never result in more conflict. She always abided the unspoken law of necessary silence in her village, never spoke back to the adults, and knew not to cause trouble whenever she can. Simply because, the feeling of hitting someone, the feeling of being superior, just never sat right with Lydia. Following commands was necessary, and while she had no arguments to prove it, all she knew was that it was what she should do. So, when her mother told her to get the water from the well in the middle of the village, she grabbed the rusted metal pail lying by the porch of her home and headed out the door without a second word.

The morning sun had only just appeared beyond the horizon, where the tall cloudy mountains painted the surface of the world as far as the eye could see. It was only the beginning of the day for the village in the mountains, beyond the hills of the Northern regions of the land, where spine-chilling coldness would only get colder as the day went by, especially right in the middle of the coming season of autumn.

As for Lydia, it was the day where she would go to the market and purchase the freshest harvest of the season. Her worn out wool dress bounced as she strutted through the cobblestone path, the steel pail held right in front of her dark red apron. Under the morning sun, a dark brunette hue was bouncing off of her braided hair, like ash and charcoal, wrapped into the back of her head. She greeted the other early-bird villagers with a smile, men and women, all doing their respective morning chores like Lydia herself was, though it seemed like they were too busy with what they were doing to greet her back, or even to see her smile in the first place.

Reaching the center of the village, Lydia's bright orange eyes fell upon the sight of a cobblestone well, two pillars of wood constructed facing each other, supporting the beam that was tied to a piece of rope. She looked down upon herself, right to where her apron was, and sewn into the middle of it was a small pocket. Lydia reached inside and pulled out two golden coins. Just enough water to fill the pail was all she needed before she could go on to buy herself a piece of bread for breakfast. She knew the baker and his stand in the marketplace that could make one of the best breads she had ever tasted, and although the baker refused to trade with her, she hoped that he wouldn't deny these last two gold coins she had. It would take a while before she would reach there, though, as the market itself was built further than the village where she lived. Not a lot of crops could grow on the mountainous territories of the Northern regions, and all she would muster for most mornings for herself was two gulps of a sheep's milk. But that much was enough, until today where she had gone down to her last bottle. And so, deciding to quickly bring a pail of water back home, she would go to the market and buy herself a piece of bread since milk could only get you so far. A thin slice the size of her palm was enough for three days' worth of food.

She walked over towards the well, surrounded by the emptiness that came greeting the village early every morning. A faint rooster's crow could be heard in the distance, signalling the first words she had heard just today. With her two small hands, she wrapped the rope that was connected to the well's beam around the pail's metal handle and threw it towards the humid darkness.

She heard a wet plop, and her hand started to tingle as the rope sent a tremor, meaning that the pail had landed onto something below. With a hitched breath, she began pulling up, the muscles in her arms straining from the sudden weight that was connected to the rope.

Finally, she obtained an almost full pail of water. She didn't waste another time to catch her breath, she needed to get back home. That's just the kind of girl she was.

"–can't reach there. The hill's too steep."

That sudden faint voice made her glance sideways. She saw that the village's square wasn't so empty after all. There were three other children, very much older than her, perhaps just a few years apart.

"Told you practicing in the woods was a bad idea," One of them said.

"Fuck off, Derek," Responded the other.

Unknowingly, Lydia's eyes had been trailing them from afar. They were one of the only kids in the village, after all. It was as if she had a sudden unexplainable interest towards them, making her wonder if they had been playing something with each other before coming here.

For a moment, their eyes met, and Lydia quickly turned away, silent as she did.

She lifted the pail full of water and started to walk away, not wanting to cause too much attention to herself. The other kids she saw had also began to move away from the center of the town, but not before she heard a faint call from one of the boys.

"Sickness."

Lydia stopped whatever she was doing, seemingly frozen on the cobblestone where she stood. Whenever she heard that word, she could feel her heart sunk deep. In truth, she was never really close to most of the townsfolk in the village of where she lived. She wished she didn't know just where that unfathomable hate was directed towards.

But no matter how many insults were thrown at her, no matter how heavy her heart became, she knew she couldn't do anything but to be silent. For it was her duty. Sometimes it felt tiring, having to pretend that she was alright all the time, but the consequences she would take were bigger than the things she'd sacrifice. She had lost something so dearly once, she never wanted to feel that same loss ever again.

She returned back to her home not long after. Lydia stopped by a small corner, towards a gap between two buildings that hide a downwards path of small cobblestone stairs. It was a small community, neighbors divided by small patches of grass, some at different elevations, which could be credited to the fact that they lived on a mountain. Lydia lived in a house hidden by the foot of a hill, which could only be reached by the small cobblestone path. It was a small one-story cottage, a building made out of clay tiled roofs and stone walls, with a poorly built stone chimney jutting out of the west side.

"I'm home, Mum," Said the little girl as she stepped into her humble abode, closing the door behind her, "I brought the water, do you want me to boil you some potatoes?"

She stared into the dim lighted indoors of her house, flying dust gathering under the creeping sunlight, which shone brightly against metal pots and utensils sitting on top of the kitchen's shelves adjacent to the front door. As she stepped deeper into the wooden floorings, leather shoes creaking the nails, she heard only silence. There was the smell of old oak, mixed with something akin to used clothing. This smell was not uncommon, but somehow something felt out of place this morning.

"Mummy?" She called out again, putting aside her heavy pail full of water next to the stove, where all the soot piled up.

There was one part of the room disconnected by stone walls, a door frame yet no door separating them. She slowly walked over towards it and peeked inside, heart tightening in hopeful wishes. But what she saw made it stop completely.

"Mum!?" Lydia called out in panic, almost jumping into the air.

In front of her was an older female figure, lying motionless on top of a small wooden bed, lying under a small ragged blanket made out of sheepskin. Someone who looked very much like her, from every single strand in her long silky black hair and fair skin, despite the noticeable lack of youthfulness. Even though her complexion matched Lydia in many ways, this person was much paler, and her cheekbones were showing out of her face. Lydia's mother was not of good health, and she had not been as such for a long time, Lydia knew. But this time it was different, no matter how hard Lydia called for her mother, she wouldn't wake up, and her body laid motionless as if dead.

"Mum?" Lydia called out again, still not believing that she was completely out cold, in her mind, the possibility of her mother sleeping was better than her being dead. The little girl kept rocking her mother's shoulder, and still there was no response, and when Lydia tried to check on her mother's temperature by touching her forehead, she was burning, "Oh no, Mum… Mum, please wake up!"

She was getting more on edge, finding herself unable to calm down. Her breathing was starting to get impatient. She was scared, and she didn't know what to do with it.

"Mummy, wake up! Please!" She kept begging and begging, but her mother still didn't utter a single word.

But it came to her that her mother was still alive. Her breathing was faint, but it was there, and it was getting dimmer every second.

She needed to make haste, "U-umm… Mum, I will… I will ask for help, alright! Just… just wait here!"

In an instant, she left the house, running with her skirt pulled up. She was starting to sweat coldly, an intense rush running through her body. Losing her mother was something she could not bare to imagine, let alone happen. Just thinking about it made her mad with fear, fear of being left alone, fear of not knowing what she would do after.

She needed to get help, she had to get help. But just where should she go? What could she do? Her mother was dying, even if she wasn't, her sickness had gotten worse. She was running through the streets now, the morning sun still hadn't left the horizon, and there was still nobody in the streets for as far as she could see. Should she scream out for help? She had been running around for a minute now, and she still couldn't find anyone. She was scared, what if they rejected her? What if they couldn't help her mother at all? What if she was being a bother to them? The little girl truly didn't know what to do.

Think! Think! Just who could she go to if she wanted help from someone with experience? Someone who was always open to help the sick. Then, it struck her: the market! There had to be a travelling merchant who knew how to save her mother. It was still a week into harvest season, there should still be a group of merchants staying there in the marketplace.

Lydia stopped in her tracks, hand rummaging the pocket of her apron. A second later, her face beamed with a smile, breaking her former frenzied expression, as her fingers felt two gold coins she planned to use to buy bread rubbing against her skin. She ran the other direction from where she was, knowing all she needed to help her mother restoring her health was in her pocket. What was left in her mind was of her thinking of trying to find the right merchant in the village.

Through the downwards streets, past the unleveled patches of grass and buildings, she reached the part of the road that led to a dirt path into the edge of the woods just outside of her village. She knew it was the path towards the market, and without any hesitation, Lydia sped into the darkness of the orange colored forest, before disappearing completely.

She ran, and ran, and ran, until she could feel her lungs burning in the cold mountain air. But she couldn't stop, it was what she had to do, even when her legs are starting to ache, she knew that what mattered what to save her mother. It was her _duty_.

The dirt trail bended numerous times until she lost count. But there was nothing to worry about, she had been to the market before, she knew the way to go there. However, she realized that some implications had changed, specifically how in autumn the fallen leaves from the thick brambles of the tree's were starting to cover up the trail. It was there beneath the piles of dead leaves, just barely visible through the gaps of yellow and orange, and so Lydia found herself in quite the predicament.

After a while, when her thoughts start to clear from fear, she took note of her surroundings. It seemed like she had been running without any apparent sense of where she was going for some time now, and she only noticed it when she realized she couldn't recognize her path anymore. She was starting to grow suspicious, and she didn't know why, but her gut feeling told her that she was in some places she shouldn't be.

Her movements started to slow; a feeling of unfamiliarity overwhelmed her. But she had not a second to lose, she just needed to find the path again, she was sure she's still on the right track. But what would she do if she wasn't?

Her train of thoughts were stopped when she crashed into something that appeared from behind a tree. Both Lydia and the thing that she crashed into made a noise as they fell to the ground together, both sounded familiarly human, which was then followed by another sharp breaking sound.

"Ah! What the… shit!"

That voice entered Lydia's ear as she was lying on the surface of the leaf filled forest, feeling a stinging pain on the side of her body. As her head was connected to the ground, she could hear vibrations on the dirt, very much like footsteps, as she tried to pull herself back up.

"By the Gods, Tim. What the fuck. Are you alright?" It was a different voice, but very much the same.

"It's the Sickness!" A third voice cried very loudly, enough for Lydia to feel her body trembling by the notice of it, "What in Hells is she doin' here?!"

Lydia lifted her head slowly, seeing a bright ray of sunlight blinding her eyes. As she slowly started to adjust, she was staring right at a boy with a plump build and a buzzcut. A boy she knew she had just crashed into, someone his friends would call Tim, but she made no effort to lift herself up as Tim had his eyes fell upon the thing that crashed into him. Two other people were by his side, eyeing the fallen girl with some rather perplexed expressions.

But the one thing she found odd was that cracking sound she heard earlier, she never remembered being close to a glass object, and when her unadjusted eyes wandered off into the shadows of the trees behind Tim, she immediately saw a glint of metal and brass.

It was a sword, a small sheathed one with a rather complex embroidery. She could see it on the leather that was nailed to the rusted metal frame. It shocked her as the weapon was in a state of disarrange, with several bolts and nails separated from the leather body. Lydia moved her eyes further down the body, where she saw the sword started to get unsheathed from the leather, and realized that the hilt had been disconnected from the blade, possibly from the fall.

"Oh, Gods, hey look, the Sickness just broke your Da's swords!" One of the standing boys said with a rather amused smile, he had a necklace made out of bear tooth and moussy hair.

Tim's face as he got to his feet was red as a tomato the moment he swiveled back and noticed the broken sword, "She did _what_?!"

As Lydia watched the boy running to reach his broken equipment on the ground, the little girl was starting to get herself back up, unable to think of anything else but the predicament in front of her. What had she done? How could this have happened? But a high-pitched shouting voice quaked at her eardrums.

"Fuck! Oh Gods, what the hell?!" Tim growled to himself as he kneeled next to the broken sword, his two friends circling it beside him, "Da's gonna kill me!"

"The Sickness did it, Tim," A leaner, bowl-cut haired boy said with a whispery voice, pointing towards Lydia.

The little girl only took a second to look into Tim's enraged eyes to know that her life was in grave danger. She was on her fours, trembling, her legs seemingly refusing to get themselves to stand. Even when she tried, she would only find herself falling back down to her rear, dirtying her dress from the dirt covered leaves.

"Oi," Said Tim, slowly walking up towards the terrified girl, "What are you going to do about this, huh?!"

There was a pregnant silence. The braided little girl shook, unable to muster up the courage to respond. But neither being silent nor speaking had given her a chance to explain herself, as what came next completely made her realize just how insignificant her existence was in their eyes.

They were moving closer, she was starting to get even more scared, maybe if she stayed quiet they would leave her–

"AAH!" Lydia screamed in pain as she suddenly felt a burning sensation on her head.

"I asked you what you're going to do with my damn broken sword, bitch!" Tim shouted into her right ear as he forcefully pulled her hair up.

Her hair was yanked yet again, Lydia desperately tried to free herself from Tim's hold, whining at the pain she felt all over her head. Yet her cry was cut short when she felt a blunt object hitting against the side of her stomach, causing her to collapse sideways while clutching the unbearable pain with her hands. Nausea overwhelmed her, her body curled up into a ball in order to ease the great anguish that she felt. She didn't hear the two other boys encircling her.

They were staring at her, or more specifically, her hair. When her braid came undone, a streak of red bounced off of the morning sunlight. Her dark bangs were spread out as it covered the side of her face, and at the end of each strand was the color of crimson, like dried blood splattered on the leaves. This clear distinguishing feature was what made it evident that she was not an ordinary child.

"Ugh, disgusting," Tim winched when he caught sight of her crimson bangs, "Subhuman trash."

"Hey, Tim, why are we wasting time with her? Can't we just ask the old man from the North side for help? She'll curse you, y'know," Said the necklaced boy.

"Not a bloody chance, Adder!" Tim spat back, "You think Da's going to let something like this go?! You saw what he said when the damned thing fell into the gorge, you trying to go through that again?!"

He approached the writhing girl again, and lifted her head up by a strong yank at her hair, exposing her contorted, pained expression.

"Besides, it was her fault anyway," Tim told his other two friends with an intimidating grin, "Nobody's gonna care if something happened to her, so I'll make sure she's compensating for her mistake."

"Why not just have her tell your Da' that she's the one who broke it. She deserved it," The third boy shrugged, one that was tall and lean and had a bowl cut. This one was called Derek, if she remembered correctly. "Someone with her blood is cursed. I'm sure your Da' wouldn't mind beating her like her mangy father."

At the mention of her father, Lydia's confusion peaked. The lean boy was talking as if the two knew each other, but much to Lydia's knowledge, she never remembered being acquaintanced to him, nor to the rest of them, before. A question bore inside her mind; just who were these kids?

"No one's gonna buy it, idiot," The sound of a distrusted Derek said, "How the fuck will we explain what we're doing in the woods? I mean we only told yer Da' that the sword got stuck in a waterhole. We didn't say anything about practicing with it in the middle of the fucking woods, did we?"

"Shut up, already. She wouldn't snitch even if it cost her her life anyway, right?" Tim added, snapping back at his friend, "She knows that if she doesn't know her place, she's going to end up like her subhuman father."

Lydia's breath hitched; a realization hit her in the back of her head like a painful punch. Yes, she remembered now, particularly on who the plump boy was. A seemingly very important boy by the name of Timothy Reinald, simply because he was the son of Sir Iohannes Reinald. His father was said to be a former knight working under a lord at some far-off land that they ruled. Years it had been since Iohannes arrived in the village, and still nobody knew why. There was no exact date of when the knight left his duty to settle down, nobody seemed to question it, but when his wife passed away due to the same sickness that was infecting Lydia's mother, all that was left was him and his son.

And the other two boys beside him, one wearing the necklace and the other sporting a leaner body, were the sole reasons why she had lost an important part of her childhood. Derek and Adder were Tim's only friends, as far as Lydia knew. But Lydia was sure of herself that the reason why the three were stuck to each other so much was that, all of them bore the same hate for people like her. But it was more likely because, without Tim or his father, both Derek and Adder were just a couple of village boys. They couldn't have affected Lydia's life as much without the Reinald's family's existence.

It had been like that for years. The hate that was directed towards her, blaming her for the things she didn't do, things that she couldn't have stopped even when she wanted to. All of it stung her just as bad as the growing bruise on her ribs. From what used to be a sense of urgency, the need to save her mother from her illness, now she just wished that all of this would just end soon. This pain, this suffering, the tears that ran down her cheeks at that very moment.

"Oi, did you listen to us?" She was instantly brought back to the realization that she was still surrounded when Derek's voice invaded her head, "There's this thing that you need to do, okay, Sickness?"

Lydia stammered, trying to speak through the pain, "U-umm… But I have to-"

"Won't take long!" Said the one with the necklace, a boy called Adder, "Just for a lil' favor. Alright?"

Her mind was running a mile in a second. She truly felt like she was standing on the edge of a needle, leaning too much into any side would not definitely result in her favor. Lydia knew that she must do whatever it took to get to the marketplace before her mother's time ran out. But no matter how hard she tried to think herself of a way out, she would always come to the conclusion that her choices were already forfeit.

No! She needed to save her mother! So then why couldn't she...

"Right. We don't have all day," Tim suddenly barked again, this time angrily. He kicked her shoulder with his leather shoe roughly, making her fall to the side the second he let go of her hair, "Let's go already, Sickness. And pick up the sword!"

Lydia whimpered in response, her vision limited to the fallen red bangs that covered the side of her head, as her braided hair was released from their knot. She could only see herself crouching on the leaves, her hands covered in dirt. Tears were dripping down her nose, falling onto her knuckles silently. The wind seemingly caught pace with them, Lydia could hear it whistling, running through her sweat-soaked hair, just enough to be caught despite the continuous banging heartbeat echoing in her eardrums.

"I said move it!" Tim kicked the girl again, this time pushing her forward by kicking her rear, "Pick all of it up, got it?!"

But all he could hear was just soft crying from the little girl. Lydia felt hopeless, unable to breathe from the pain that cramped her lungs, and the weight of guilt that maddened her thoughts. No matter how hard she tried to run, something always held her back, like a single drop of doubt was strong enough to pull her down.

"Oi, get me the sword," Tim's voice broke the moment as he turned to his friend, Derek, "I'll just cut her a bit if she doesn't want to listen."

The plump boy's words made Derek seemingly furrow his nose, "What're you gonna do with the... y'know…"

"I'm not going to kill her, idiot," Tim barked back, his face contorting in fury, "I'll let my Dad do it for me when I tell him she was trying to rob me. You think anyone would care if I take an ear?"

And just like that, his friend complied. Lydia saw his shoes walking away from her towards the wreckage of the sword, all while praying with all her might that someone, or something, would put an end to everything she was going through.

But there was nothing, only silence.

How ironic. All her life she filled herself with silence, silence that she knew for sure would be able to take her away from harm; the same harm that killed a family member that was never there for her. And yet that silence answered her with a glistening blade, ready to strike her ear. Above that fear, what she experienced at that moment was extreme daze and confusion, utter bewilderment as to why such a thing will happen to her.

These questions of 'why' kept replaying repeatedly in her head. Why did her father have to die without her being able to remember even one memory of him? Why did everything that made everyone hate him, she had to go through as well? If she truly was cursed, then why was she even born?

She didn't understand, she didn't know what to do. Crying out for years inside her locked-up heart, Lydia knew that deep inside she just wanted everything to disappear.

...

… **SKRRREEEEEE!**

A violent tremor shook her entire body, making her heart jump in shock as if electricity was running through her veins. The forest felt like it was exploding, her eyes unable to make sense of her surroundings. That inhuman shriek was destroying her eardrums, but when her hands touched the ground to gain balance of herself, she didn't feel it moving at all. And quickly as it manifested, it disappeared without a trace.

The boys seemed like they heard it too, as terror was splattered all across their faces. The three of them had their feet rooted to the dirt, unmoving.

Lydia could feel goosebumps all over her body. She knew that it was a scream, something a human would make if all the bones in their bodies were being grinded to dust. There was that suspicion of a fox cry, something one would often hear in the woodlands. But the more she thought about, the cry that she heard… no… _felt_… earlier, wasn't from anything like that.

"W-what the hell was that?" Derek the lean boy said to his friends, breaking the silence with a shaky voice. In his hands he held the broken sword's blade.

The two other boys said nothing, they too were still trying to make sense of what that terrifying roar was. The forest felt alien, something in the back of their minds spoke to them to flee, as if it was no longer safe to be there.

But not long after that, the ground shook once, strong enough to get them back to her senses.

Then, it shook again…

And again…

And again, as if something big was approaching them slowly. It felt like something was going to pounce at them at any second. It wasn't until they smelt a new scent that was getting stronger amongst the smell dried frozen leaves that they became aware of a newer presence. The air felt unbreathable, all that they could taste was an ever-growing whiff of smoke, but no apparent source of fire.

Tim was the first one who managed to regain his nerve. He turned to his two terrified friends and spoke with a hushed tone, most likely fearing an oncoming forest fire; "Let's get out of here…"

Both Derek and Adder nodded with each other, slowly taking their leave, but before they could leave, a deep growl and an odd crackling noise froze them in their tracks.

Lydia looked behind her, towards the distance, and what she saw made her heart stop.

A creature was standing on all its fours between the tall trees, its figure hidden by a thin layer of smoke without any apparent source, standing twice as big as the boys. She then saw that its black paws were like orange burning charcoal, claws like molten glass, and every step it took with it sizzled the dead leaves on the surface of the woodland floor. Its body was like a giant piece of coal, oozing dark grey smoke from its many parts, with fur that pointed upwards like needles, and sparks of glowing red like fire flowers scattered between them. Lining its back were glowing ambers, fire sparks were flying everywhere from it.

Its head struck Lydia similarly like a fox's, yet its fur was black in color. And when it stared at them, its eyes were a spiral of flames heading towards a black central abyss. From its mouth, where the creature bared it's glowing, molten glass-like canines, dripped a smoky clear saliva that hissed when it touched the ground, turning it black, like acid.

As the smoke that mysteriously covered its body started to clear completely, Lydia also started to see a fox's tail on the creature's end, but it was stiff like wood, and the tip glowed a brighter shade of orange. Like the rest of its body, it was as if its tail was made out of burning charcoal.

The little girl locked eyes with the demon incarnate, and the burning fox-creature made a high-pitched guttural noise with its throat, a puff of smoke was blown out of its mouth, a noise similar to the cry that she heard earlier.

"What the hell is that?!" Lydia saw the boy scrambling to each other.

Tim, who was once filled with unrelenting anger, was overwhelmed by his fear. "By the Gods! Run! Run!"

Two of them turned heels and immediately raced to the same direction with their tails between their legs. Derek threw away the sword before also making a run for it, away from the monster and away from Lydia. The little girl was immediately struck by the realization that she was still crawling on her fours, the monster just right behind her, and the boys intendedly leaving her alone with it.

Lydia had to get up, but she couldn't as her ribs were still hurting. In desperation, her arms reached out, crying out to the three boys in hope of help, "N-no! Don't leave me! Stooooop!"

**SKRAAAAAARGHHH!**

A shadow passed over her, it was too quick for her to see what it was before she found herself witnessing the sight of the fox-creature landing just in front of the three boys.

As if weighing nothing, the fox-creature had made a great jump despite its humongous size, shocking the three boys as it loomed in front of their screaming figures. Both Tim and Derek slipped and fell to their rears, a look of horror splattered on their faces. Without taking another second, the fox-creature swiped its paw on Derek before pouncing on top of Tim.

The lean boy's body was thrown high up into the air like a ragdoll, before crashing into a nearby tree with a violent **THUMP!** Derek was limp when he slid down the trunk and stopped at the tree's roots, before showing four giant steaming claw marks that was permanently charred on his body. Life had fleeted from his eyes. There was no blood, just a black burn that tore at his chest and stomach. Even his spilling intestines had been burnt to a color of coal completely.

"AAAAAH!" Tim's scream exploded into the chaos. The giant monster had its enormous snout prying into his stomach, and the boy was failing to push it back with his hands. The monster lifted its head back and the plump boy's guts were strewn between its fangs. Tim was still alive when he watched his own open stomach sizzle and burn as the fox-creature's acidic saliva melted his skin, flesh, and bones.

Lydia could only watch in horror, shock, and disgust as two kids died instantly in front of her. When the third one—Adder, the necklaced boy—was running towards her from the fox-creature, Lydia could see him crying. He truly didn't want to meet the same fate as his friends. Adder was utterly terrified.

**SKREEE!**

But it was too late. No man could've dodged that charred fox' leap, which made a beeline for his torso. It's jaw split open revealing it's molten canines, before biting down on Adder's body sideways. As his upper torso was disconnected from his legs, his eyes were wide open and dazed. God knew what he was thinking at that last moment. Warm blood splashed across the ground, before instantly drying upon the leaves with a sizzle after being mixed with the beast's red-hot saliva. In the distance, Adder's upper body landed softly on the surface of the forest's floor. Lydia couldn't see his face, wondering what his last expression was, but the way the tear that split his body in half had instantly cauterize in a matter of seconds, leaving his organs and flesh charred to black, had made her stopped caring well enough to realize that the same thing would happen to her in a moment's time.

Lydia did not notice that she had stopped breathing, her eyes still glued to the carnage in front of her. The three boys, at least some that she could see, all died with a face of agony, or unlike Tim who had his face melted to the bones. It made Lydia imagined herself in their positions. Staring at her own dead face, mouth wide open, trying to scream out that last bit of suffering that she will feel before she dies.

And in that moment, the fox-creature had noticed her, and his swirling orange eyes locked itself with Lydia's. This was the end for her, she was going to die. There was nothing she could do. The fox-creature approached her slowly, it's paws sizzling the leaves beneath it, every step it took shook the ground from its sheer size. Lydia could feel her heartbeat fasten like never before, the fear of imminent death had taken over her, making her head dizzy.

No matter how much Lydia prayed, the fox-creature was still approaching. Nothing was making it leave. The monster hadn't had enough, and it seemed like it will never have enough.

Stomp, stomp, closer the fox-creature got.

But her hammering heart was suddenly stopped, and as if her switch was turned on, the little girl sucked in her first breath of air.

"AAH!" Her scream pierced the intense atmosphere, the fox-creature seemed taken aback.

Lydia quickly kicked the ground under her and leaped sideways, before proceeding to run her already tired legs across the leafy surface. Her little body sidewinded past the trees, pushing through the bushes without looking back, all while thinking of one thing: "I don't want to die!"

A terrifying cry blasted inside her mind, shattering her eardrums; the fox-creature did not seem to like her running off from it. But mysteriously, she was still alive, and because of that fact, Lydia knew that she had to run away while she could.

Her lungs were burning, her chest had an unbearable sting, and her legs wanted to give up. But that simple wish of not wanting to die had pushed her to break for it. Lydia kept crashing and crashing into more bushes and tree trunks, but she didn't stop running even as the terrain started to move downhill. She did not even have time to think about what the monster was, and where it came from, all she wanted to do was to_ survive_.

She heard a loud stomping behind her, the ground started to shake faintly in response, and the smell of smoke was still not out of her nose, which meant that the fox-creature was still following her.

It was catching up fast, at this rate she would still die like those three boys.

She needed to do something.

She didn't want to die.

She needed to do something QUICK!

"SOMEONE HELP!" She screamed into the forest, tears wetting down her cheeks as she knew that it was her last and only resort, "SOMEONE HELP ME!"

The woodlands stretched across the mountain lands far and wide. The morning sun was still half seen on the horizon, yet the echo of the little girl crying out as she ran down the mountain in terror could be heard.

And between those cries, was a sound of a fox's hungry growl, following suit.

* * *

Far away from civilization, amidst the brazen rays of sunlight that laid asunder from the little gaps between the stiff brambles of the towering treetops, a little girl was in deep slumber.

A sunken mix of yellow, red, and green hue spread and lit upon the cold mossy ground in a seemingly unending rows of ancient woodlands. Nothing could be heard but the scurrying of woodland rodents, the joint-like clicks from three segmented animals, and Harmony's soft breathing. The world stood still as if it was no longer what it once was, something primal and sovereign lurked predominantly across the thicket of orange leaves and branches, howling in a call for sovereignty with the wind that occasionally passed by the clearing where the sunlight fell, like a beast following the oncoming season of autumn. But under the shadows of the treetop leaves, where the little girl lay idle, seeking for comfort as her head rested on top of bulging roots that spread out the foot of a giant tree, the world almost seemed innocent at times. Blanketing her was a ragged piece of fur cloak, with milky grey tufts shaped like the edges of her curled-up figure, surrounded by a patch of short grass and mossy dirt.

There was a semblance of tranquility emanating out of her, but that peace did not last long. Harmony started to shift and turn, her raven black hair scattered throughout the patch of dry grass and dirt with some strands getting caught between the rough bark of the tree's roots. The little girl's expression strangely contorted, as if she was drowning inside an extreme fever dream. Her breathing fastened; something was terribly wrong.

She struggled in her sleep, as if chained by invisible binds. The shadow of the tree that loomed over her felt like it was growing, dragging her small figure into the darkness ever so slowly. Harmony nuzzled the smooth edges of her chin closer into her fur covers trying to push back that awful sensation. Then, she heard an awful crackling noise, creeping into her earshot, slowly rising louder and louder. Desperately trying to force herself back to sleep, the little girl hugged her own trembling body in order to drown the noise, curving more and more into a shaking ball, whining.

Crackle, crackle, the noise started to speak. And it was getting closer. Over a blank subconscious canvas, as the nasty sound started to permeate inside her restless mind, a mental image formed. Even with both eyes closed, she could see lightning, and it was laughing at her. Crackle, crackle, a grotesque grin formed from the dark canvas, shaped like formless snakes with no apparent mass, inching closer to her face.

Closer, and closer, yet she couldn't look away. And then something else appeared inside her mind as the grey clouds slithered into and over each other, shaping itself into another entity, one far worse than what she could comprehend. There was nothing that she could do but watch as the lightning turned into screaming, and the storm turned into a figure of un-light. She felt like her mind was burning. Hot, hot, she couldn't comprehend just how painful it was to look at it. A figure that she somehow felt familiar yet…

"AH!" Harmony suddenly jolted, half her consciousness finally forcing it's other half awake.

A little patch full of green moss and grass was sent flying as her foot kicked the ground beneath her. Gasping for air, she tried to make sense of her hazy surroundings. A ray of light blinded the corner of her heavy eyes, slowly it adjusted them to see that she was still lying on the cold dirty ground.

She caught sight of the gigantic woodland trees, humongous roots including the one she rested upon were jutting out of the floor of the forest. Immediately she picked up the crackling noise again, this time dimmer, and it was in front of her. Her body shifted from its position, supporting half her weight on one arm as she lifted her head up. Even with the help of the sunlight that was dissipated by the forest's canopy, there was another source of light that sparked red like what she could only imagine as ambers. A stench of smoke filled her nose, and as she caught a glimpse of another figure near that source red spark, she could finally confirm her suspicions.

Harmony said nothing even after she noticed him, she knew better than to greet the Overgrown Knight. With an indifferent heart, and a cold, sweat-drenched body, she lied back down on her side and started to close her eyes, feeling her heartbeat soften and starting to relax. Until a husky voice spoke to her.

"It is unwise to resume your sleep, especially after a nightmare," Said the Knight. The face that was darkened from his hood was lit up in red hue, and in front of him was a pot full of broth, sitting on top of a burning pile of cinder, in which with his dirty gloved hand, stirred the murky water.

The little girl momentarily kept herself awake, even if she was reluctant to do so, her body still hiding under her covers. But after a few seconds, she forcefully pulled the rag off of her before half-heartedly plopped down to sit on her rear.

As the fur coat left her body, a ray of light shone on her figure, specifically the outfit that she wore. Where she was once a simple archetype of a clean, well dressed orphan of the clerical church, a simple look at her current state would tell you differently. The nightgown that she often wore was traded for a simple long-sleeved sea green colored shirt, the thickness of its cloth failed to catch an oncoming breeze, hardly cooling her sudor under the light of the sun. A short leather coat covered her outer layer, even with its dark brown it still could not hide the stains of old mud and scratches from rough terrains. Even her hair was in a state of disrepair, it looked as if it had been months since she had last combed herself, with clumps of moss and dirt caught in between the black strands on one side and on the other side, a good chunk of it defying gravity after being bedridden overnight.

She scratched the sockets of her face with her knuckles, still feeling heavy in drought and partly listless. Then, her nose perked up when another scent arose from the smoke. Harmony turned to the Knight, and unenthusiastically asked; "Mushroom stew?"

The Overgrown Knight did not answer at once, but his eyebrows raised in a brief moment, signaling that she was indeed correct.

Almost without fail, the Knight would prepare enough stew for the both of them every morning from the very first time Harmony had spent a night with this man. By some power, he would always wake up first, no matter how early Harmony tried to wake herself up. Eventually she stopped caring, thinking that the Overgrown Knight was probably messing with her, yet he was still able to wake earlier and prepare them stew. Harmony wasn't sure if he was indeed sleeping the first time this had happened.

"We will be heading north again, today," Said the Overgrown Knight as he reached behind him , into a gap on the body of what appeared to be a giant leather made quiver, sitting just next to his sheathed sword, and took out two small plates made out of well carved wood, "But before that we will continue your training. We'll start immediately after you've been fed."

And then, he took out another object from the quiver, not from the opening for storing arrows but a curious linear tear with long metal ridges across each disjoining sides. From it he took out a ladle that was surprisingly made of metal, and after he was done, he reached into a little metal object was located on the edge of the gap of the quiver, and pulled it downwards, and all the metal ridges clamped together magically. This seemingly too big bag for a quiver was his, Harmony first saw it when he fetched her after she parted from Julia and the other orphans. It was where Harmony's new clothes that the nun lent to the Knight was stored, along with the pot and a lot of other things Harmony had yet to see. When she closely examined it, it didn't exactly have an infinite space in its interior, yet how the bag was able to close itself without visible buttons were beyond her.

"Did you hear me, child?"

"Ah! Yes, Sir Knight!" Harmony stammered, immediately straightening her sitting position when she realized that a pair of sharp amber eyes were glaring at her from underneath its hood. She had been scolded for calling him Mister Knight for some time, and in the end, she had resorted to calling him more formally.

One of the many mysterious things that Harmony had noticed upon the Overgrown Knight from all the moments she spent with him, she never had actually seen the man reveal himself beyond his mossy armor and cloak, and everything including most of his darkened face was still yet to be known. The only thing that she found to be very interesting was that the Knight's face was never actually a color of healthy skin, yet a mixture of brown and dark green, like as if a constant ray of light through a green stained glass was always shining at it.

After a moment, the Knight sighed. With his ladle he poured himself a bowl of mushroom soup, hot steam could be seen floating upwards from the mass of small chunks-filled liquid. The mushrooms were never evenly cut, Harmony at first thought that the Knight would just squeeze a whole toadstool between his gloved hand and then just throw them in along with some herbs and spices.

The bowl was then lent to Harmony, still piping hot, "Here."

The little girl could see herself in the partly clear broth. Her raggedy appearance moving gradually on the surface of the liquid.

"I don't want it," She said almost immediately. After some time spent with him, she realized they both had started to skip the pleasantries, and only now was she able to confront him head-on.

The Overgrown Knight pulled his hand halfway back, yet still seemingly willing to give her the bowl, "Then what will you eat. Our journey is yet to be finished. You will not survive just from breathing."

"Then, I will fish," The little girl snapped, and she realized it herself. Though, there were some strange uneasy feelings weighing heart, yet she refused to pull back from what she said. Frankly, she had enough of mushroom soup.

"Hmph. And how do you suppose you'll do that without any proper training and equipment?" It was also the first time the Overgrown Knight showed any emotion beside apathy, for he seemed to be amused by Harmony's rebelliousness, "Being stubborn is often mistaken for strength. Not knowing the difference could mean death."

He glanced back at the girl, who seemed crestfallen at his statement. There was a look of utter disgust in her eyes, and the Knight could see it clearly.

"It matters not to me if you did die, though," He said unemotionally, "I suppose it would be very wasteful for you that after just three months, you will start running back to your Sister's embrace. Alas, you are still young, a mere, weak child could never be able to stay true to her own-"

He felt something yanked at the bowl of stew that he held earlier, and when he looked down, he noticed that it was already gone. It didn't take him a while to realize that Harmony was chugging down the broth and the mushroom lumps with it, and the Knight was sure that it was still boiling hot when she did it. When she finished, the collar of her leather vests was wet from the water that dripped from her chin, and around her lips were stained with little bits of mushroom grains. She gasped for air, and hot steam could be seen coming out of her mouth when she exhaled.

Harmony's hand shot forward, the wooden bowl was empty and she was asking for more.

"I am not weak!" Said the raven-haired girl as her emerald eyes burned, eyebrows furrowing together in apparent rage, "And I swear by the Lord of the Light that I will become the greatest knight that has ever existed!"

The Knight said nothing, he only watched as Harmony snapped her head up in shock of realization, before clapping her hands together and started praying with haste, showing gratitude towards the gods for her food. It seemed like she hadn't lost her clerical origins, though a little sloppy, considering how young she was. It was almost heartwarming, the Overgrown Knight ultimately brushed it off and huffed to himself before pouring her another portion.

"What did you see?" He asked, moments later. The Knight was also holding his fair share of food, drinking it by the edges of the plate along with the mushroom chunks leisurely.

As the seconds passed by with them under the shade of the forest's canopy, the sunlight had already moved further away, joining into one hotter beam containing the heat of the summer of June, and the blue sky appeared through the cracks between the leaves and branches above them. The birds had started chirping, there were few brightly colored ones flying overhead as they moved in schools, signaling that it was halfway in late morning. To them, time had begun moving slowly, as being outdoors for quite some time had gotten them quite used to the constant change of night and day. It was at this moment that the Knight had decided to spark a conversation with his apprentice.

Harmony looked up towards the Knight, she was already on the third portion of her share and she no longer looked as drowsy as before. The energetic little girl from the church beyond the hill had returned to her rightful state. Her eyes fell upon the Knight's, noticing the abounding look that he gave her.

"See what?" She said with a mouth full of mushroom chunks, not knowing what he was referring to.

"In your nightmare," The Knight added, his tone without a hint of empathy.

Harmony's eyes fell, and her expression turned sour, "It was nothing… I just remembered what had happened back then with the storm. I don't know why I keep remembering it."

"Past trauma is often a very annoying pest," The Overgrown Knight chastised, "I shall assume that you're still worried because of what could've happened to your fellow orphans and Sisters, yes?"

Harmony nodded, "But there's something else…"

The Knight raised his eyebrow in apparent interest, "Something else?"

"W-well… nothing else, really. But…" Harmony looked into the back of her mind, knowing that whatever she saw was still there inside her memory as clear as day. Yet she still couldn't explain it clearly with her mouth, "It was like the world was very bright but very dark at the same time. And, when at first I saw The Face in the Storm, it turned into this… shape… I couldn't see it clearly but it… it shook me, or something. Like whatever it is, it wasn't real yet it was real enough in my dream."

"Was this shape… a human?" The Knight asked again, "Did it speak to you in any sort of way?"

"No, I don't know, it was like staring at the sun," That wasn't a complete truth, of course. Harmony knew well enough that what she saw was a figure of a person, but it was burning to look at, and she could feel it even in her sleep, and for whatever reason she felt unsure, or even scared that if for any reason it could be a person, it wouldn't be exactly just a dream. It was like, even as a memory, that figure could still be watching her, listening closely every time she referred to it, "But it didn't speak to me, what I heard was like… screaming."

That statement was perhaps what caused the Overgrown Knight to show the most emotion he had done this past few questions, "Screaming? Was it thunderous?"

"No, not like thunder more like," Suddenly she could feel her heartbeat leap in velocity, she was starting to feel anxious, "as if the universe itself was screaming."

The Overgrown Knight placed down his plate of stew. As the red hue from the burning campfire started to fade, leaving only a small pile of ash and charcoal, the ambers of the Knight's eyes eclipsed into a look of inner turmoil. The branch that protruded from the left side of his hood shook from a sudden breeze, and along with it, dozens of small leaves began flying about.

As if in a daze, Harmony's eyes were fixated on her half full plate. Inside her mind she kept repeating the same questions: why couldn't she make herself forget about that awful night? These last three months spent travelling through cliffs and canyons with the Overgrown Knight, with no signs of stopping, with every effort that she took to make herself stronger seemingly pointless, the nightmares that infected her dreams were only getting stronger. She didn't know what she should do, and she couldn't imagine watching herself come back home a weak little girl all the same.

Her heart began to fog, staining her thoughts with negativity, like murky sand overfilling a little fragile cup. The cup started to spill, and her hands reacted with a tremor. The stew started to shake; the liquid was in a state of chaos when her hand convulsed in response to her disquiet mind. She didn't try to stop it; she didn't believe that she could stop it.

But her unfaltering gaze broke apart when a little green leaf fell into her plate. As the solitary foliage landed on the murky surface of the broth, a single ripple was all it took to calm the waters. Her hand oddly stopped shaking, as Harmony felt her heart slowly descended into calmness.

'Some might not even survive the first one, others will be disconnected from their families in order to fulfill their duty'. Just how much did the Overgrown Knight had to leave behind in order to get where he was? The difference between experience was obvious between Harmony herself and the Knight, she understood that. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that it would probably take a lot of storms to numb the Overgrown Knight's emotion of fear.

"Sir Knight," Harmony called to him, "Just what do you fear the most?"

"Is this question akin to what you have seen your nightmare?" The Knight asked her as well, in which she responded with a nod, "Sometimes, fear is an important lesson. One cannot learn a sword is truly sharp without having being cut by it. And like all lessons, it all boils down to what the learner uses it for. Being afraid is just your mind telling you what could happen, what you do with it is what matters. Do you run, or do you explore that fear? If you run, then you have learned nothing but to keep running for the rest of your life. But if you see fear from every perspective, is what I believe is the greatest pragmatic use of fear. That is to say, I've had my share of fears, however I have confronted them, made sense of it, and the lessons I've learned made me stronger."

To Harmony, who remembered watching herself shake in terror at the face of an Eldritch abomination, listening to the Knight felt almost inspiring, "So you've never backed down from fear even once?"

"Stubbornness is often mistaken for strength, remember?" The Knight added, "It is not about fighting against fear, it's about bettering yourself from it."

He stood up, standing at his leather boots while looking down the empty pot. The excess smoke that rose from the white and black charcoals were scattered just before they got to the Knight's face, his hands waving briefly in front of him trying to block the scent of smoke.

As he turned to Harmony, who was still sitting cross-legged with a plate in her hands, he pointed down to the pot, and coldly told her, "It seems we have wasted enough time here. We still have a long way to go. Go clean these up, we will resume our training shortly after."

Expecting another dissatisfied response, the Overgrown Knight waited for the little girl to start whining. Shockingly, her response was anything but.

"Yes, Sir Knight!" Harmony said with a loud shout. In an instant, her hands flew over towards the cooking equipment, collecting both the pot and the Knight's plate at the same time.

Before she sprinted towards the opposite direction, with her tiny arms carrying the wooden and metal utensils to wash in a nearby river. The little girl flickered under the sunlight when the giant trunks of ancient trees hid her figure the longer the Overgrown Knight watched her moving her little legs. Like the wind that blew after, the cold, near-autumn breeze erased the prints of her leather soles, and not long after that she was all but a memory. The Knight clicked his tongue, before noticing Harmony's fur cloak lying sloppily by the root of the giant tree that she slept on.

"How troublesome," He said, sighing to himself under his breath. The Knight walked over towards the fur cloak before picking it up with his leather glove, rubbing off the fallen leaves that got entangled with, "Is it too much to ask to keep the clothing I lent you clean?"

Suddenly, the man froze. His amber eyes lit up, glaring into the air, as his hooded face began darkening terrifyingly so. Even under the light of noon, there was something like an aura of animosity encircling the Knight that made him stand out like a still shadow. As if on cue, another gust of wind rushed past his cloak. The branch that sprouted from his hood shook violently and the leaves that overlaid his root-constricted armor flew into the air in one single strike, yet the Knight said nothing. The second the gale stopped was when the forest became truly quiet. It wasn't the beast of autumn, it was something else, and the Knight could feel it.

It was then that the Overgrown Knight shivered, for the first time in a long time in his life. The screaming of the universe. The blazing black mass. It all felt so familiar yet so surreal.

However, this man knew not to take light of surrealism.

The Knight harrumphed to himself, realizing he had taken too much time pondering upon what might be. No, he was sure that what he imagined was something intricately planned. What happened that day when The Face in the Storm appeared was no coincidence, yet there were still some clues he had yet to find, too many possibilities to make an exact conclusion. No matter what, he cannot falter, not even once, for how long had it been since he had been this alert?

Something was definitely coming, because he felt another presence, however this one he knew as something materialistic rather than just another careful intuition. It was as if in any second, another wind would come, and with it, a soft hooting voice.

"_Hou_~ _Hou_~"

It wasn't just a wind, but something was flying overhead. Round, tufty, too quick for any ordinary person to catch if they missed it by the second, yet one could notice a pair of large black wings spread out above them, making a dark ominous shadow on the ground. Another shadow passed again, following was another, and another. Until most of the piles of dead leaves on the ground was filled with brown and black feathers.

"_Hou_~ _Hou_~"

The soft hooting got louder. There was that indelible feeling of being watched by dozens of red and yellow floating orbs between the darkness of the branches, under the shadow of the canopy. The sound of the forest was overrun by numerous soft wingbeats, as an army of owls began to gather.

The Knight sighed again, realizing he was right for taking too much time in the forest where they slept. He turned his head away towards the distance without any obvious reason, but when something spoke from behind him, it was clear that he had felt the presence long before it had appeared.

"_Hou_~" Another hoot was heard, however this one sounded human. And immediately after, the voice of a woman broke the singing of the owls, "How very interesting..."

The man in question said nothing back to the new voice. The Overgrown Knight turned his head behind him, and was met with the sight of a hooded figure, perched on a nearby branch, on top of the giant trees. And around it was a flock of owls, hiding from the light with their eyes glowing. Depending on the figure's eerily archaic voice, it was clear to most that the mysterious visitor was of the feminine gender, yet, not her face, nor her body, could be seen under her enigmatic, owl-like cloak. It was dark brown in color, contrast to the orange of the forest's hue, yet seemingly in conformity with her hooting feathered friends. Her hood had two pairs of small feathers protruding out of her head like an owl's ears, and at the hem of her drape was like an owl's wings with larger feathers seemingly fused into the dark fabric, creating the impression of a giant owl. There was nothing, but the shape, that implied that this being was a person.

The world seemingly stood still as the mysterious owl-figure and the Overgrown Knight stared at each other. Clear enough, the Knight knew who this person was, but it was unclear of what the owl-figure's intention was.

"_Hou_~" Said the owl-figure from the dark depths of her hood in a sing-sang tone, "How int'resting. Thou haven't gotten rid of the little girl, still? Hou~ How most int'resting…"

"It is none of your business, Arcane Owl," The Overgrown Knight snapped, seemingly antagonized. However, he made no move towards his sword, whatsoever.

"Fufu~ Doth thee knoweth why owls are oft bid all-knowing?" The one deemed as Arcane Owl giggled. From the branch where she had perched onto, her two barefooted legs were dangling off of the edge. Pale and naked, it rocked back and forth one by one, "Owls can bendeth their necks backwards to seeth their rear if they see fit, they hath big corky eyes that watches every coign of the leaves and the branches, and their ears hark every footsteps and every breathing from a rodent to an elephant. And yet, owls canst not read the hearts of man, why doth thou regard that is?"

"If you have nothing else to do but to mindlessly hoot, then I suggest you promptly leave," Snapped the Knight again, "I know you have much better things to do, Owl."

"_Hou_~ How fartuous of me~ Nay creature i' existence couldst desire to behold into _thine _heart, Sir Knight. Ahh... But alas, 't seemeth like the little girl hast thy heart struck verily," It wasn't just the Arcane Owl giggling louder, everywhere around the small clearing was filled with the sound of sharp hoots, as if the other owls were laughing along in amusement.

The Overgrown Knight was momentarily silent. There seemed to be no hiding from the Arcane Owl, nor was there any possible way to get rid of her. "Don't be foolish. I do not choose whom I deem necessary to be taught. No man on this world could hope to bear the lessons I give. It will only be a matter of time before the little girl begs for me to take her back home."

"_Hou_~ I wouldn't beest so sure about yond. 'T hast been two strokes of the full moon and yet, the little girl hast not hath left thy side."

That was true, no matter how hard the Knight should try to overlook it.

"Are you quite done? Do I have to repeat myself, not waste my time? I still have a duty as an Apostle Hunter, and so do you," He added, "As I speak, I'd rather have you tell me whatever message you are sent to deliver, Owl."

Something seemed to move from underneath the Arcane Owl's robes. And as the object moved to the front of her hooded face, it was clear that she was hiding her giggles with her hidden hand, "How incredibly rude. We Apostle Hunters art verily better workers togeth'r, doth thee see? _Hou_~ fufu~"

With one swift motion, the cloaked being seemingly jumped from the branch, before landing on her two bare feet. It was as if the figure weighed nothing, there were no signs of the branch shaking in response to her movements.

"But I liketh yond about thee," The Owl said, "I has't been watching, ears hark-eth to the winds, the dread'd day is coming clos'r. _Hou_~ Th're hast been decisions of… new'r measures being used."

The other owls were silent, not even a hoot nor a rustling of leaves. The Overgrown Knight perked up his hood, towards where the Arcane Owl was perching. The woman's tone did not sound playful anymore. A hand popped up from between the gaps of her cloak, pale and naked with something attached to her fingers. They were like bronze claws, similar to an owl's talons, wrapped around each of ten fingers with smaller mechanisms to move accordingly with her finger joints. Her index talon moved upwards, pointing at him ominously as a small ray of sunlight shone dimly on its sharp edges.

"The timeth f'r action is nigh. We shan't maketh any m're risks, Sir Knight. The Hunters needeth thee," The Arcane Owl hooted again, this time it was similar to some sort of a call.

"... The situation is under control. I am personally taking charge of Apostle extermination. For now, tell the other Hunters to stand as we are, however cautious. If we follow the will of the Gods, we will not have anything to worry about," The Overgrown Knight responded with a scoff, "If that is all, I would like to be left alone. I expect you to not return unless a greater threat has appeared."

For someone like him, it was never wise to base judgement from simple intuition, no matter how old or experienced one is. He handled himself very well based on intuition alone, but he cannot afford to be wrong when it counted, especially when what was at stake couldn't possibly be comparable in thought. Yet even from deep under his cold gaze, the Knight knew that he was being contradictory, or at least hiding the complete truth. But doing so would in fact be beneficial, both to him and to the realm. He was only sure of himself that he knew what he was doing.

"_Hou_~" The Arcane Owl seemingly hooted to herself. Her clawed hand disappeared again under her cloak, "Thee truly art not afraid of aught. Fufu~"

"We are Apostle Hunters," The Overgrown Knight added, "Being afraid is illogical for us. I dare say that it is not an option that we can take. What we do is for the sake of God's wills, nothing more, nothing less. Compromising from simple premonition is a very bullheaded approach."

"Oh, how I loveth thy loyalty, truly w'rthy of appraisal," The Owl said in amusement, "Doth tryeth to be m're reasonable yourself. Else thee shall only soundeth fraudulent."

"Absurd. Never once have I neglected my duty, nor have I tried comprising my means."

"_Hou_! _Hou_! _Hou_!" The Arcane Owl suddenly laughed, it was like a sharp screech, one would even call it inhuman, "I knoweth, of course, for I was not talking about thee. I wast talking about thy choice in keeping the little girl 'round."

For the second time, the Knight was silent.

"If 't be true thy loveth towards humans is truly, then leaveth the girl," The tone that the woman had right then could send a chill down a person's spine, "We both knoweth just what the consequences art."

A faint gritting sound could be heard, and in monotony, the Overgrown Knight clenched his leather gloved fist. It was as if he was gripping a sword's hilt with all his might

"... That's enough," Said the cold voice of the moss-covered man.

There was no response from the Arcane Owl, the only time she was silent was to seemingly let an unknowing gust of wind passed by. However, the second the autumn breeze slithered through the branches and the leaves, the owl-eared hood that the Arcane Owl was wearing was caught with them. And for, not a split second, but an entire two minutes, the Arcane Owl's face was exposed to the light of day. Bright brunette hair glinting under the sun, cut short to reach her chin with blunt bangs and wet ends, as if encased by feathers on an owl's head. Another object that framed her head was bronze face chain, wrapping around her crown and over her nose, each disappearing over her oddly elongated elf-like ears; a large eye-shaped bronze ring connecting the two chains. Her large beady eyes were the most dominant thing on her expression, like the bright pairs of orbs that had a yellow shin at each retina, staring immensely at the man before her. And her smile, small yet big enough to leave the expression of an otherworldly emotion. Like a mixture of all the years, centuries, millennia, or even eons, watching mankind from the beginning to the present day, whispering the emotions of admiration and pity.

The Arcane Owl's small pink lips fell into an impassive expression, before giggling again.

"_Hou_~ Oh, how improp'r, f'rgive me. May we meeteth again, Sir Knight. I wisheth to seeth what thee has't decided to do in the coming weeks," She lifted back her hood and covered her face back in pitch black darkness, but her lingering smile did not fade even for a while, "Farewell…"

As if readying for a jump, the Arcane Owl bent down her upper body, before leaping so fast, there was no trace of her anymore. The other owls that had lie and wait were scrambling in the instant the Owl had disappeared, filling the sky with so much brown and black feathers it was like snow. The forest hooted in madness, with only the sound of a hundred wings flapping simultaneously.

And just like that, the forest was silent again. The feathers that once collected on top of the fallen leaves around the Knight had also disappeared, as if they were never there. When another gust of wind blew, the Knight was already gone. His bag and sword disappeared with him, and scorch marks on the ground along with the ashes of wood from the campfire were all wiped clean from existence as if they were never there.

A small figure appeared in the clearing not long after. Harmony returned to the spot where they last slept and saw nothingness. Galloping back with her were the utensils that she carried in her hands, dripping wet from what seemed to be an after-wash from a nearby stream. However, she knew very well not to stay too long and ponder, for she had been warned that the Overgrown Knight might already left her behind.

So, without a second word, she dashed off again, skipping silently through the forest surface.

Moments later, she arrived at a clearing, this time up towards a lone brown hill that reached another edge of another forest. The Overgrown Knight stood looming by the top, one foot above the other on the hill, and a hue of green surrounded him as the noon sun blasted off of his mossy hooded cloak. On his waist was his twisted sword, sheathed.

Harmony beamed, she clenched her fists that held the metal pot and wooden plates and approached him. Wasting no time as she did.

"I've finished cleaning them up," The little girl gazed at the Knight's amber eyes proudly, "Might I have my cloak back, now?"

The Overgrown Knight was still looking afar, not answering her. He was oddly lost in thought, something that was quite rare even for Harmony. But she didn't mind about it, everyone could be quiet about something, perhaps the Knight had his own reasons as well.

Then, she saw him glance past his shoulder, his amber eyes stared at the little girl.

"Hmph. You've done well catching up to me," Said the Overgrown Knight, his words seemed impressed but his tone spoke rather coldly. Harmony presented him the cleaned utensils, and he took them all before putting it inside his bag, strapped around his cloaked shoulder with a piece of leather strap, "I expect better time management. We've already spent too much time here."

"I will, Sir Knight!" Harmony said again with explosive enthusiasm, before being surprised by a large furry object hitting her face, "Eep!"

"We will journey for five hours, our tracks here should be lost by then. If the conditions are met at that time frame, I will continue to teach you how to fight. And if by any chance you decide to complain, I will simply tell you to run back home. You are not my responsibility, and I have no interest in training such people. Is that clear?" Without even a hint of mercy, the Overgrown Knight blasted her with painful words. Yet, there wasn't even the slightest change in his eyes.

"Sir, yes, Sir!" Melody shouted back, eyes locking towards her teacher.

She looked down at her naked hands that held the soft furry cloak and saw calluses on top of her joints, dirty nails, and tiny dry scars. It had been three months since her fight with The Face in the Storm, and it had only been three months. Her knuckles whitened; her heartbeat pounded against her chest. She had made a promise, and with that promise in mind she flung the cloak over her shoulders and strapped it around her collarbone by a brass chain fastener, her eyes burning.

"I'm ready to go, Sir Knight!" She declared.

The Knight said nothing but merely gave her a cold look, before turning his back on her and walked away with the little girl following his footsteps.

Unknown to the Knight, the little girl behind him was smiling the whole time from the moment they left camp, as if she had a rather significant thought running through her mind. It wasn't a complete lie, for she was thinking of how proud she would be if she could see herself after all of her training was finished.

These three months she started to see as an achievement, rather than a burden. She had no choice _but_ to see it as such. The Overgrown Knight was right, she had a promise to keep.

Their journey continued for an hour, passing several streams and rivers, over large clearings in the forest, and encountering some of the many odd findings like the ones they found in their past three months of travel. Exactly three months did it take to get this far, filled with rigorous training and environmental challenges that Harmony had to experience. For a while, she thought about going home, she really did. But, as she now understood why, it was only because the Overgrown Knight's life had always been this way, without changing, every day. He was only teaching her how to do so in the exact same fashion. And to think that he was still willing to teach her even with his noble duty…

Harmony knew he was a great man from the start, but never once had she imagined that even he had things he needed to sacrifice for his duty gave her a newfound respect. The Knight could leave her at any moment and he didn't. If only she could return him the same favor.

They were entering another forest, where it was further high up the mountains. Harmony was still in her thoughts, while still carefully navigating through the trees and brambles, ignored by the Knight. She wondered if the Knight would bother to teach her to fish one day, she never actually seen him do it even once, but on one occasion where they had to camp near a lake, the Knight presented her with a cooked fish on a fire, tasted only a little less salty than the ones she would eat at the church. Harmony tried to imagine if it was possible for her to cook him something that she caught herself, one day.

The little girl made a little chuckle, realizing how amusing it would've been to watch the Knight constantly trying to reject her food with the same sour expression he always had.

"Shhh!" Snapped the Knight suddenly, breaking Harmony's train of thoughts.

They were standing in the middle of the trees, the terrain was slowly climbing uphill, meaning that they had gotten to the mountainous territories of the Northern lands. Harmony could feel the dried leaves breaking under her feet, and the air felt cold and light.

But amongst all these silences, it seemed like the Knight had felt a presence nearby.

Harmony stayed silent, letting the Overgrown Knight confirm his suspicions. But a second later she heard something odd between the silence.

It was a very faint sound, but she knew well that it didn't sound like a normal speaking voice. It was as if coming from further away, someone was shouting into the air. But why would anyone call out into the open without any apparent reason?

Then, came a fainter echo. It arrived just as another gust of wind blew. The voice sounded exasperated, having these short incomplete breaths between them.

"Someone…" The inaudible voice said, "Help…"

Harmony's eyes widened; she could hear it a little bit clearer now. It came from in front of the two of them, towards the gaps between the trees and bushes. Her ears had gotten used to the forest noises that she now could hear some slight changes in the branches and leaves, and just then, she heard a pair of footsteps rushing through the leaves towards them.

"Stay behind me," The Overgrown Knight ordered her.

He unsheathed his sword, seemingly also noticing the rustling of leaves in front of him. It was then that Harmony also took a stance.

From the shadows of the trees, a small figure appeared, breaking through a small dried bush with a faint crash. It was a girl, hastily approaching them from the distance, and her complexion was starting to get clearer when she got much closer to the teacher and his student. She had dark colored hair, and odd red bangs that ran down her wet cheeks, her dress covered in soil and pieces of leaves, and her skin bruised and cut. She was running towards the Knight with an expression that could only be described as great fear.

That simple expression alone was enough to alert them of a greater danger. But just before Harmony could call out to her what's wrong, she heard the little girl speak. It was that same exasperated breath, almost as if she was starting to choke on her own voice.

"Someone save me…"

Another rustling of leaves was heard, but this time, it sounded heavier, faster. It echoed throughout the silent forest like some sort of large animal scampering through the woodlands, and a second later, a giant shadow was suddenly seen as it jumped from behind the running little girl, causing her to stumble forward. It only took Harmony a small glance upwards to see a giant black and red fox diving towards them with its jaws wide open.

She didn't have time to react, not even enough time to express enough emotions to summarize her great shock. But something had pulled her arm and threw her backwards.

**CLANG!**

**GRAAAAAARGHHH!**

When she landed on her back, she had missed the moment when the Overgrown Knight swung his twisted sword, making contact with the fox-creature's molten glass teeth and deflected its entire body away, just in time before he could be devoured by the beast.

The fox monster landed on its side to a tree with a crash, but it got up not even a blink later, leaving a charred mark on the tree's trunk. It shook its humongous head, seemingly trying to get rid of its apparent surprise. The monster's eyes observed the Knight, before baring its teeth in aggressiveness. Smoke oozed from the fox-creature's saliva, the leaves under its foot started to fog hotly.

The Overgrown Knight only stared back at his opponent, with the same amount of intensity hidden under his hood. His sword raised up, his legs taking a stance, and his expression darkening. His footing shifted, now positioning themselves in front of Harmony, shielding her from the fox-creature.

A fox of fire, against a Knight of earth. Two legendary beasts, ready to bite at each other's throat. The Knight knew he could not back down, or else the lives of two little girls would burden his shoulders. But he felt the same amount of vehemence from the beast in front of him. Whatever it wanted, or whatever it tried to protect itself from, it seemed to show no acts of doubtfulness. Its nature could just as well be a wild beast, but the Overgrown Knight felt a different presence just not quite right with it.

The winds of autumn breezed through the woodlands at that moment, brushing away all that was left of the tranquil past. What awaited in the echoes of the forest was just chaos, like the calm before the storm that was fated to doom the land, no matter the outcome.

* * *

_**To be continued...**_


	3. Prologue Arc, Ch3 Sickness

_**Prologue Arc: The Olden Days**_

_**Chapter Three**_

_**"Sickness"**_

* * *

**SKRAAAARGH!**

**CLANG!**

The sound of molten glass hitting metal screeched throughout the autumn forest. The battle howled intensely every second as both the Overgrown Knight and the monster in front of him clashed without mercy.

The man cladded in mossy cloak and vine-grown armour swung his onyx-bladed sword against every strike that the fox-creature gave him. The beast that could squash and melt a grown man's body to the bones was at the mercy of the Apostle Hunter. Its paw could not reach the Knight no matter how much it tried. Even while wearing his seemingly heavy armour, the Overgrown Knight was moving at a pace that was obviously inhuman. His greenish cloak was flying left and right, millions of tiny green leaves were flying in the air as he kept dodging the monster's attacks without breaking a sweat.

The fox-creature growled and barked in anger, the infernal abyss that circled beyond the darkness of its eyes were starting to glare in a red-hot colour. With every strike, every pounce, and every bite, all of which were unable to successfully land a hit on the Knight's body, the fox-creature grew more and more distressed. Dozens of steaming hot, acid-like spit landed on the fallen leaves on top of the woodland surface as it kept battling relentlessly; creating a series of black, charred spots that sunk to the dirt.

Then, it roared greatly into the air, jaw unhinged and spread wide open, revealing the creature's molten glass teeth. In just a second later, its movements started to change. The Overgrown Knight had seemingly noticed that his opponent had gotten more erratic, more unpredictable. He was almost unable to dodge some of its strikes.

The fox started to chase it no matter where the Knight dodged. It would strike when it thought that it was close enough, not giving the Overgrown Knight any chance of rest. Many of the trees around it had been brought down by force, all of them bearing the same burned claw marks at their trunks, a great part of their body scooped out very roughly. The arena started to grow wider, the leaf-filled surface was stained with charred dirt and fallen trees.

Without any warning, the fox-creature somersaulted, its massive weight quaked the surface of the earth as it landed with its burning tail hitting the ground into the direction of the Knight.

The tail itself did not hit him, but then several glowing coals suddenly shot forward.

"Ghh!" The Overgrown Knight bit his bottom lip, grazing a flaming rock that flew towards him in great speed. The hem of his mossy green cloak was not so lucky; one of the burning projectiles had just burned through the fabric, creating a steaming dark hole through the green fabric.

"Sir Knight!" Harmony's voice shouted from a clearing outside the battle.

The raven-haired girl was still lying on her rear after the Overgrown Knight had thrown her outside of the battlefield. When he started fighting the beast, Harmony could only watch in awe as her mentor was still standing his ground without being scratched.

But the Knight had no time to rest. The fox-creature started to spin, and with it, an uncountable amount of red coals exploded from its tail.

The air was filled with fire flowers, and the only thing that you could see when you looked up towards the sky was a rain of burning rocks that could pass through a human's body like a hot knife through butter. The fox-creature howled, snout pointed up towards the coal-filled sky, signalling its assured victory.

"HARMONY!" The Overgrown Knight shouted in distress. He knew he wouldn't be able to deflect every projectile, which meant that, if he didn't do something quick, there would be two more unwanted deaths on his hands.

But Harmony had already disappeared from his shadow. The raven-haired girl had jumped from where she lied, before throwing out her arms to envelop the other girl in a protective position. The strange girl—Lydia was her name—was slack-jawed in Harmony's embrace, possibly still out of breath from trying to escape from the beast.

"SIR KNIGHT! ABOVE US!" Harmony shrieked back. Both her eyes closed, and her arms tightening around the strange girl.

Pulling himself out of his trance, the Overgrown Knight looked up, and massive red rocks were already inches away from his face.

**FWIP! FWIP! FWIP! **The sound of the tiny burning meteors sizzled past their ears. The dead leaves around them didn't just steamed when the rocks landed, but they exploded. The projectiles scattered upon impact, creating a bright giant spark at the surface of the forest. Something sizzled against Harmony's sleeve; a fire flower from the explosion had burned away the fabric. She hissed at the sensation of hot particles sizzling against her skin.

It wasn't enough to deflect them; the Knight quickly shielded the two girls with his large cloak. The explosions started to become more frequent, until all they could hear was chaos and ear-splitting roars of fire. The fire sparks fell one by one on top of the Knight's robe, burning the mossy fabric through until they got to his armour. Harmony could feel the heat around her starting to get more and more intense. One glance up, and she saw the Overgrown Knight's agonised expression. He must be taking all the force of the explosions all to himself.

But then, the Knight raised his sword holding right hand, while his other hand held his cloak above the two girls. Through the smoke of burning fabric, the Overgrown Knight brought the dark blade up to his face, before uttering the words;

"_Evocation Spell… Fifth Echelon… Destructive Wave!_"

A second later, some sort of spatial started to envelop the lightless blade of the twisted sword, almost as if the space around it was moving on its own. His husky voice still ringing in Harmony's ear, seemingly having some sort of magic on their own. She recognized this action, even if it had been a long time ago, and there was no doubt that he was going to summon some sort of magical attack.

Her hand immediately flew towards the strange girl's hair and forced it down, "GET DOWN!"

With a spin, the Overgrown Knight arose from his crouching position. Without even a moment of hesitation, he struck the woodland floor behind him, facing the fox-creature in the eyes, before sinking his blade as deep as he could with all his strength.

What came after was not short of calamitous. A giant unseen force went off from where the blade of the sword had deeply penetrated. And—like a giant rock tossed into a shallow pond—the ground, the trees, and the air around them started exploded with a ripple. Even the light from the sun bended and waved like space itself had been splashed around. The fire and the smoke were blown back harder than any wind could.

**SKRAARGH!** The fox-creature was blown back by the unseen ripple. And its enlarged body rolled backwards hopelessly from the spell. What was odd was that neither Harmony nor the strange girl had been affected, almost as if it only worked on a certain distance from the centre of the spatial ripple. Nonetheless, they were no more at the mercy of the fire demon.

The Overgrown Knight pulled his sword from the dirt, its black blade glistening red from what was left of the burning leaves. The world around him was charred black; the trees had several rock shaped holes on their trunks, their roots still aflame and the surface of the forest was nothing more than a smoking mess. There were still the sound of crackling fire around him, risking to be spread to the rest of the mountain range. He waited for his opponent; the fox-creature was still stumbling back on its four feet.

It was in a daze, the Knight concluded, the spell must've knocked him quite hard. But he still cannot lower his defences. He felt at his armour; it was chipped in several different places, the moss and overgrowing roots that once serpentine across his torso had been mostly burned from the rocks, and his cape was in ashen tatters. But with only this much damage, the Knight knew he could still go on if the situation needed him to be. However, both Harmony and the girl that they had saved could be facing bigger risks than rains of burning rocks. If anything, this moment where the fox-creature had still yet to attack was the perfect escape route for the two girls.

"Get up," The Overgrown Knight commanded Harmony, his eyes still facing the fox-creature. "Take the girl somewhere far. I'll hold it off."

"But what will become of you, Sir Knight?" Harmony gasped, choking on the smoke around her. It would seem that she had been staring at the Knight's back for some time now, taking notes at the damage done to his armour, perhaps wondering in worry if it was wise for him to face the demon alone.

"I will be fine," The Knight reassured her, snapping sharply without even turning his head. "Now go!"

Harmony pursed her lips. She didn't waste another second to lift the smaller girl up by the hand. Lydia coughed in her arms, most likely from the smoke, to which Harmony reacted with a sigh of relief now that she was reassured that Lydia was still conscious, even if she was in a state of shock and distress. The apprentice quickly helped the girl to her feet, before fastening her legs towards the shortest, safest way towards the forest, hands still connecting to each other. Then, the two girls were gone.

The Knight was the only one left in that smoking field of burned leaves. The autumn wind blew across his face, but the stench of the smoke was still everywhere. His amber coloured eyes stared intently at the creature in front of him as it had finally gotten to its feet. The Overgrown Knight tightened the grip on his sword, preparing for another attack, before he saw the look the fox-creature had in its abysmal eyes.

As if time stood still, both the Knight and the fox-creature gazed back and forth at each other. And the Knight, what he saw in the look of the demon was nothing short of… tiredness.

The fox-creature was growling deeply, the charcoal-like fur on its snout furrowing in anger. But it did not attack the Knight no matter how long their stand-off lasted. The Overgrown Knight narrowed his eyes, unable to fully understand what the creature was thinking. The look in its eyes was as if it didn't want to fight, but was forced to. With a rather doubtful heart, the Knight sheathed back his twisted blade, wondering if the creature was going to attack him if he did.

Surprisingly, the Knight earned a rather odd reaction from it; when the fox-creature lifted its head, it was almost as if it felt rather relieved. There was a low purr, something between the sound of a fox screech and a cat. In hindsight, the beast was still a terrifying monster in the eyes of a mortal, but the Knight was no ordinary man; he noticed something from the creature that looked quite human.

Then, after a few seconds, it turned its head around before leaping towards the opposite side of the forest edge, disappearing into the darkness. The screeches of the monster mixed into the autumn wind. The Knight closed his eyes and listened; not at the wind, but to anonymity between it.

His suspicion was starting to grow, and it wasn't for the better. When he turned his head to look at the tiny footsteps etched across the burned leaves towards the untouched forest, he furrowed his shadowed brows. A look of militance stared full of antagonism.

In the deeper parts of the forest, where both the smoke and the fire hadn't reach, Harmony was still running for her life, while still burdening another.

"Must be… far enough…" She said in between breaths. Harmony knew just how dangerous it was to stay close to a monster, even more so when the Overgrown Knight has engaged in a fight with it. Her lungs were starting to burn, wondering how long had it been since she had run this much. But alas, she pushed back the thought of resting, she couldn't bear the thought of letting someone get put in harm's way.

The mountain terrain led her upwards, higher towards the top of the hills to a land she had never seen. Her movement were stammered, for she was still leading the stranger with one hand. For as long as she could be fearing how the fox-creature could still be on their trail, she did not care of where she ended up. But the question still stands: where could keep running? Where should she wait for the Knight? What should she do when he fails to return?

"Ugh…"

The raven-haired girl stopped in her tracks, feeling the grip on her palm loosen. Lydia suddenly stumbled down to the leafy terrain behind her, falling to her feet.

"Oh, dear… Hey, are you alright!?" Harmony immediately kneeled down next to the girl. She was taken aback as to how she could feel her trembling madly even when touched by the tip of her finger.

The first thought that crossed Harmony's mind was that she had forced her to run more than she could. But then she felt an odd sensation when her palm rubbed against Lydia's pale arm. There was a little bump, hidden by her sleeve, and it was awfully blue once Harmony had gotten a good look. In panic, it was safe to assume that it happened during one of the fights with the fox-creature.

But for some reason, Harmony had a feeling that it wasn't all there was.

The girl said nothing when the knight's apprentice started to feel her up and down, below her dress and through her collar, before she finally shrieked in confusion.

"W-what are you—?!" Lydia flushed in response to Harmony's recklessness, to which the latter suddenly shot her in the eye with a very serious look.

"You have bruises all over you!" The raven-haired girl snapped, inching closer and closer to the girl she just met, "A-are you hurt?! Did the fox-thing get you?! Erm… How can I help?!"

The smaller girl jumped at the sudden change of tone. But it made Lydia realize just how deep she had been drowning in her own trance; head filled with thoughts of dying, the smell of burning acid against flesh, until she even forgotten of the peril that she had just ran out of.

This girl was… Harmony, if she remembered correctly. "A-ah… No, it's… it's nothing…" She reassured her, rather not thinking about it.

But Harmony's look did not fade away, making Lydia nervous. Her heartbeat was still fastening, making her words coming out not as they are supposed to. The two had just met, and even in the circumstance of life and death, thus Lydia had no idea why she had that look in her eyes. Despite being as shaky and unsure as they were, the way it mirrored her own ember coloured irises reminded her of the eyes of someone she had once known. After the first few seconds, the emotions that bottled up in her chest started to spill out as tears.

The smaller girl started to sob uncontrollably, all the horrors, the pain, the fear of having to go through an agonizing pain like the three kids that had died in front of her. Without even wasting a second, Harmony went to embrace the smaller girl in an awkward hug. But knowing how Lydia started to violently grasp at her collar for control, it made her feel like she had done enough.

Harmony spoke, but somehow, she had sputtered upon her own voice. "E-erm… Do you know where I can take you to safe place? We can't stay here forever, and—"

She stopped midsentence; her throat clogged by the sound of Lydia's cries, guiltily trying to hide her own unsureness behind silence. The raven-haired girl was taught well enough to run away as far as she could from danger, there was nothing she could do to help the Overgrown Knight at her current state, but she hasn't been taught of what she should do when another life was also at stake. The smaller girl probably couldn't run as fast as Harmony could, so the safest solution was to find a shelter for the two to hide in and wait for the Knight to arrive.

But even then, Harmony wasn't even sure that the stranger before her came from anywhere. Why would a little girl be wandering around in the mountains alone? Something told her that there was an untold tale she had yet to know.

"What's your name?" She asked the girl that she held in her embrace.

When the crying started to fade, a small squeak was heard, "… Lydia…"

"Uh… I'm Harmony," The raven-haired girl introduced herself. In her head she kept thinking of what her Sister Julia would do in situations such as these. She then sighed, realizing that it was better to look at Lydia like she was one of her orphan sister's, "It's okay, I'll get you somewhere safe. Do you… do you have a home? I promise I'll take you there. Can you show me where it is?"

"It's… It's with mother," Lydia muttered under her breath, before her breath started to hitch louder and louder, "Mother is… M-mother…"

"W-what's wrong?" Harmony panicked when Lydia cried even louder.

"Please save mother!" The smaller girl cried. Her head shot up, almost hitting Harmony's chin, before the two locked eyes with each other once more, "She's—! I-I don't know what to do!"

"Y-your mother?" The Knight's apprentice's mind ran around in a state of disorder. Something must've happened before she had met Lydia, but did she had the time to think about it when they were still running from the beast? "Can… can you get up? I'll take you to your mother."

Lydia was silent for a couple of seconds, but she complied when Harmony lend out her two hands. She held them both tightly, slowly realizing just how dirty they were compared to hers. Just when she started to stand, she winced at the sudden stinging sensation at her ribs. It was the same place that she was kicked, where she was bruised.

The girl cursed to herself, she must've been tired, which was why the pain was twice more unbearable than before. How shameful she was, being a burden to Harmony by suddenly falling ill.

"Here, I'll carry you," Harmony insisted, quickly turning at her heel to expose her back and bending down, "Come on! We don't have time to lose!"

Those eyes again, Lydia thought to herself. She complied without talking back, slowly letting herself shift her weight against the older girl's body. It was oddly warm, despite that it was covered by a thickly sewn wool. She wrapped her arms around Harmony's neck, and not a second later, the world seemed to rush as she was lifted up.

She saw Harmony pursing her lips before she was carried off on her back, the uneven terrain made her body bob up and down violently.

Lydia could feel Harmony's hammering heart through every inch of her skin, it was madly agonizing, almost as if the girl on her back could feel it hammering inside her own ribcage. But the Knight's apprentice showed no sign of slowing down. She kept leaping over every root and rock that was met in their way, slowing her full speed only half of what it used to be, even with a baggage carried on her back. Truly, this was that overgrown knight's apprentice, Lydia thought when she stared at Harmony in awe. It was as if the raven-haired girl was someone 5 years of her age.

It calmed her down, her horrible thoughts slowly cleared up one by one. Without thinking, she held Harmony tighter, it was the warmest embrace that she had had in a longest time she could remember. All she wanted to do was to keep it to herself.

As they passed through the thick brambles of shrubbery and leaves, Harmony called out to Lydia as loud as she could, "Where do we go?! Is your home close by?!"

Lydia was like a fish out of water, "Y-yes! It's near!"

Harmony thought that it was good enough. Even if her speed was faltered, she knew she had made some great distance from where the Knight had fought the beast. If things went well, she could meet him at wherever Lydia's home was.

Then, just as she stopped thinking, something came to view on the grey horizon. Through the thicket of orange leaves she could see a small thin line of chimney-sized smoke rising up to the sky, and under it was a small, rectangular-shaped wooden house, surrounded by a great number of other wooden houses placed in entirely uneven levels. Harmony's face beamed with joy, just a little further and they would be at safe haven.

The two girls arrived at a clearing, just as they met a small cobblestone path that extended past them, towards a dirt track that disappeared to the other edge of the forest. At their right was a rising path of stone, still a bit further away from town.

Lydia was still in a distressed state, Harmony reminded herself. Was it the right choice to bring her back to her mother? She didn't even know where her home was. It would've been logical to find a medicine man first but… from the way Lydia had sounded earlier, it was as if, whoever her mother was, she was in greater danger.

What would the Overgrown Knight do? What would Sister Julia do?

Harmony took in a deep breath, trying to clear her head, then she observed their surroundings. "It seemed like the fox-creature didn't get here yet. We should bring you to a doctor, I'll gather the townsfolks and find your mother—"

"No!" Lydia snapped, almost choking Harmony when her arms suddenly tightened around her neck, "Mother is… Mother is in danger!"

The raven-haired girl only gulped in response, her brows furrowing with hesitancy. She could feel her arms almost at their limit, her calves burning from her run, and her lungs were starting to cramp from exhaustion. She had yet to see the Overgrown Knight return, and for once she was acting out of the request of someone else. Is this the right decision?

"Show me the way," Harmony ultimately decided, pushing away every last thought of giving up.

With Lydia's direction, the Knight's apprentice raced up the cobblestone path and they finally entered the uneven village of the mountains.

The smell of chimney smoke was everywhere, it was as if they had just finished their breakfast. The rocky cobblestone road underneath them were starting to fill up the spaces between them more tightly as they got deeper and deeper into the village. Wooden houses with stone-like foundations blurred past Harmony, her only thoughts were to follow where Lydia was leading her. But no matter how she tried to ignore it, she couldn't wipe away the thoughts of the village being oddly empty. She had been through small towns and villages before, all of which had their own general customs, and even if she had never been to one that lied deeply in the forested mountains, she knew that it wasn't supposed to be this quiet.

After a few glances here and there, towards the windowsills above her and the alleyways between the houses, her eyes met with a few of the town occupants, all of which were watching her from afar. Their expressions unreadable, as Harmony was still in a hurry, but there was no doubt that everyone that she had passed through had been watching her back; or perhaps, what she was carrying on it.

She stopped on a rather steep flight of stairs down the alleyway between two buildings. It seemed dangerous enough to walk by herself without caution, but even more so when she was carrying a person on her back.

Harmony braced herself and carefully, quickly walked down those flight of stairs. Lydia winced and groaned at every shake and bounce, making the raven-haired girl even more anxious by the second.

It was then that she finally arrived in front of a rundown wooden shack at another edge of the woods, where the flight of stairs had continued and led them to a clearing hidden by the village's uneven footing. It was in an arguably worse condition than the rest of the houses, and it was even more remote than the others, with a shadow from another building that darkened the shack from above.

"Here?" Harmony said to Lydia, just almost out of breath.

"… Here," The smaller girl answered back, Harmony could feel her strength slowly fading even when she was being carried.

She slowly dropped Lydia off of her back, before helping her walk towards her cottage. She limped through the dirt and grass, hastily trying to get to the door. Light seeped into the dark corners of the cottage, the smell of soot and dust overwhelmed Harmony. She was broken out of her trance when Lydia suddenly pushed away from her grip.

"L-Lydia?!" The raven-haired girl gasped, seeing the smaller girl rushing towards what seemed to be a rectangular frame leading a path to another room. She quickly followed suit just as the smaller girl disappeared into it.

There, she saw the light from the windowsill bask upon the sight of an elderly woman; pale, sickly, and unmoving. There was no doubt that it was Lydia's mother.

"No…!" The daughter cooed with tears in her eyes, falling to her knees just beside the bedside, "Please wake up…"

The Knight's apprentice stood under the frame, half-hidden behind the darkness of the living room, the smell of pungent sweat caused her to stop. Her eyes gazed still at the sight of the both of them. The mother didn't look like she had been well for quite some time, therefore the possibility of her being… No! There must still be a chance to save her!

She quickly rushed past Lydia, knees supporting her body on the creaky body as she tried to reach the mother's forehead, her hand flying up just as fast. When Harmony's palm made contact, it was hot, really hot. She started to reminisce; once, in the past summers, where the heat had out-opposed the residents of the clerical church, one of her orphan siblings came down with a heatstroke. Whatever illness Lydia's mother had, it felt just like that.

Harmony's thoughts stopped, remembering something important. She moved back her foot, hand reaching to the back pocket of her tunic pants. And from it, a small teardrop shaped phial.

Lydia eyed the Knight's apprentice through her red, tear-soaked eyes. The phial gleamed a brilliant ruby colour under the sunlight, a small silver chain connected the glass container with its lid, though the size itself could fit inside someone as small as Harmony.

"Dear gods, I hope this works," Said the raven-haired girl through her gritted teeth, leaning her body further towards the face of Lydia's mother, bending down just to reach her lips.

With a slight act of strength, the lid came off with a pop between Harmony's gloved hand. Lydia watched as the ruby liquid entered her mother's mouth, while her head was being held in support by Harmony's other hand. The concoction disappeared into the sickly woman's tongue, and the rest of the contents were violently shaken just to pour out every last drop.

There was only silence after, not even a trace of the smell of whatever that liquid was. Harmony lifted up her body and loomed on the woman's bedside, waiting.

A cough was heard.

"MOTHER!" Lydia squealed, unable to contain her shook. Her two bruised arms held her mother's frame tightly, observing every inch of her face with a hopeful expression.

The elderly woman relaxed, as seen from her face. And her breathing steadied, something Lydia knew had not been possible for the past few months. Yet, the mother was still unconscious, the smell of her sweat started to fade, but the sight of Lydia hiccupping in pure joy was enough for Harmony to breathe a sigh of relief.

She looked back at the empty phial between her palm and held it tight, "Oh, thank the gods… Thank you, Julia…"

If it weren't for her Sister's urging in packing a health potion—a signature recipe any clerical church could concoct in their holy altars—she wouldn't have been able to save this elderly woman's life. But it was without regret, for Harmony realized that she had just wasted the one thing that had reminded her of home.

It was what Julia would've wanted, Harmony told herself, gazing back at the sight of a crying Lydia, knowing that it wasn't in vain.

"I will go get someone to look after the two of you," Harmony told the smaller girl as she got up from the bedside, deciding that she had to go find the Overgrown Knight once she remembered she needed to make sure that they, as well as the rest of the mountain village residents, were safe from the fox-creature, "It won't be long, I promise you."

But before she could turn away and walk out of the room, her wrist was caught between two small hands, gripping weakly but not wanting to let go.

Harmony stared at the kneeling figure of Lydia, her face red and swollen like a tomato, crying as she begged, "Stay… Please…"

"Ah…" The raven-haired girl could feel her throat narrowing, and she made no movement.

Lydia held Harmony's hand closer to her head, as if praying, her body shaking uncontrollably in response, "T-thank you… Thank you…"

The little girl's cries could be heard from outside the cottage, squeaking into the silent morning. As if the world had not changed, the horrors of the fox-creature's attack had soon past, but not without worries. Harmony held the girl in another comforting embrace, mind still muddle in uncertainty of whether or not she should stay or go.

But what she was sure of was that it was her duty.

* * *

The woodland surface sat frozen in time as the leaves stopped moving altogether, the wind had not past for some time now. The only sound that could be heard in one part of the woods were from the figure of a cloaked man. His footsteps fade and appear rhythmically, the sound of his armour grazing upon one another by their joints echoed through the autumn forest, but everything stopped when suddenly, as the Knight raised his nose into the canopy, the air was filled with the stench of burnt flesh.

"As I thought," The Overgrown Knight muttered to himself, gazing sharply at empty space.

His head tilted and turned slightly, trying to find the source of the awful smell. He had been wandering around in the woods for quite the number of seconds, trying to track down the fox-creature that had almost bested him in a duel, hoping to put it down before it will try to kill anyone else. At first, he thought that it was all for nothing, but unfortunately, he had just stumbled upon something much more revolting.

There was a massacre just between the trees to the north from where he stood. He could smell sulphur and burning charcoal even from the distance of several dozen feet. Once he actually got closer, he could see it clearer; three bodies, all seemingly young children, mauled and burned to crisp but only at some parts of their bodies, creating a repulsive amalgam of death.

The armoured man stood still, thinking to himself right in the middle of what seemed to have been a _feeding_. One hand he held over his sheathed sword, for security, as his eyes travelled from one corpse to the other; one lied by the base of a tree, its gut spilled out and burned, the second was melted completely from the face down with only a mush was left of its organs, with the stench of sulphur oozing from it the most, and the other was just a torso split in half, its head an one of its arms still attached, also smelling of sulphur.

These children were not killed recently, perhaps some time before his fight with the demonic beast. None of them had rotted yet, but the fire had been put out. That in itself, made him realize another problem.

"Tch, so it did not go this way, then. I was too late," Said the Knight to himself, before grimacing, realizing a terrible fact, "None of these children were devoured whole, yet the creature obviously had the capability to do so. Is it not feral? If so, what other reason did it had to attack them?"

He needed to hurry his investigation, reminding himself of two little girls that were still wandering around in the woods, in risk of being killed by the still-loose fox-creature.

He continued to explore the clearing, noticing more and more things as he did. His boots had found footing in the middle of a four-toed footprint track, burned into the soil like charcoal, big enough to fit his entire sole. The dried leaves had whitened in some areas, and blackened in another. A sword lied idle by the ground next to the melted boy, untouched, shattered. He bent down on one knee, observing the broken weapon; it didn't seem like any of these kids had managed used it on the fox.

His eyes travelled upwards slowly, past the body of the melted boy, until he came across another set of footprints. Smaller, and much further away from the carnage, leading into the forest. At first, the Knight thought that it was just the footprint of one of the corpses, but then he saw how, just next to it, the burned tracks of the fox-creature were following suit.

"Someone got away," The Overgrown Knight said under his breath, "Was it the girl from earlier? Then this would mean…"

**FWIP!** The sound of something flying at him filled his ears.

The Overgrown Knight's hand jumped from his sheathed sword to beside his ear, his gloves just barely tightening around something speeding at him before the tip could penetrate his skull. Someone had fired an arrow at him, but he couldn't see whom. Then, somewhere from the forest, someone shouted.

"SOMEONE'S HERE!"

The Knight quickly got into a stance, not wasting any time to observe at the enemy. But just before he realized it, he had found himself surrounded.

There were at least 10 to 15 people just at the edge of the clearing, each armed with either a spear or a bow, and only some had a sword in their hands. When they moved closer, the Knight could finally see their faces, and who they seemed to be; simple villagers, all were men who wore tunic and with less to no armour. There were some who fashioned chainmail, and another, tubbier man, who wore protective plates with more the defence, possibly the leader.

"You've got ten seconds to explain who you are, or else we'll kill you!" Said one of the villagers, his spear pointing straight at him.

The Knight clicked his tongue; he knew from their perspective that he would seem like a dangerous individual, standing in the middle of a massacre of little children, "I come in peace! I did not kill these children!"

"Liar!" Screamed the man in metal plate armour, his face contorting in anger, "I know what you fucking are! You're one of those magic freaks, aren't you?! I'll kill you before you can terrorize any of us again!"

"Again?" The Overgrown Knight raised his eyebrow, before sharpening his gaze again, "You misunderstand! I am here to help! A feral beast did this, I have sparred with it but it got away, and I sought out to kill it before it could hurt anyone else!"

They were dangerously close now, almost all of them had closed away all paths of escape. The Knight was still in his stance, trying to intimidate those who got too close.

"You'll come with us!" Shouted another one of the villagers, "Then we'll see if that's true or not!"

"NO!" Another shouted at him, "He's too dangerous to keep alive! He's not human, I tell you! He's the one who fucking killed these boys!"

The one in metal plate armour dove straight at him, his sword raised above his head, trying to strike the Overgrown Knight at his nape. But the Overgrown Knight said nothing, with one swift motion, the blade was in his gloved hand. The metal plated man had no time to prepare himself as his entire arm was caught in the Overgrown Knight's grip, before being slammed downwards onto the leafy surface with a **BANG!** without even showing a single effort.

The entire group of armed villagers stared in awe as the Overgrown Knight now held the sword that was once belonged to their leader. But just as quickly as the metal plated man had fallen, the sword was suddenly broken into two, and the Knight did it with only his bare hands.

"Either we have a civil discussion," The Overgrown Knight raised his voice for each villager to hear, "Or we can battle!"

But none of them moved a muscle. They all exchanged glances, unable to comprehend what had just happened before them; there was a high chance that they had never seen an Apostle Hunter before, and their reaction to the Knight's strength explained it.

The two pieces of the sword fell to the woodland floor hopelessly, and the Overgrown Knight spoke again, "I wish to see your leader! Your _actual_ leader! There is a beast roaming in these woods, and it more powerful than all of you combined? You all have families, do you not? We must warn them before it returns to kill more children!"

None of the villagers said a word, they didn't seem like they had trusted the Knight that much. Below him, the Knight heard a painful wheeze.

"Bastard…" Said the man in metal plated armour, still stumbling to get up. The Overgrown Knight observed him closer, and had found that the man was in tears, "I'll pay what you did to my little boy!"

The Knight didn't immediately react, he closed his eyes and let himself calm down, "I'm so sorry for what had happened, but please believe me, I will not ask for anything else. All I am asking you all is your cooperation. I know what did this, and I am here to help."

There were murmurs around the group of men that surrounded him, but it seemed like they were starting to ease. Some helped the metal plated man up and away from the Knight before they finally decided to put down their weapons and started discussing the matters at hand. The Overgrown Knight was still being surrounded by a few men, the others were starting to look around them in horror, still taken aback by the massacre, which are highly understandable. Some tried to cover all three bodies up with their cloaks to prevent their smell from oozing again.

"How do we know we can trust you?" One of the men that surrounded him snapped sharply; his spear held adjacent to the ground in front of him, "Who even are you, anyway?"

"I am an Apostle Hunter," The Overgrown Knight answered without hesitation, "My duty is to deal with those who do not obey the natural order of the gods. And in circumstances such as these, I find myself being within my duties."

"I heard o' yous," An elderly bowman gruffly said, "T'was a long time ago. A little babe I still am when I heard stories about yous. Thought you people work with friends."

The Knight didn't answer at once, "… Not me, this time I am alone."

"Never met one of you before," The spearman said. Then, his eyes landed upon the hilt of his twisted blade, "That's some odd sword you got there, What, do you just wander around looking for monsters to kill?"

"Like I said, my duty is to fix the natural order of things," The Overgrown Knight chastised as he leaned on one foot, his gloved hand landed upon his sheathe once more, "My blade is used as a last resort only, and also for opponent's that are more powerful than a mere mortal, as I have demonstrated on your friend over there."

The man in question was watching them from afar, his plated armour dirtied from his fall. He was sitting on his knees next to a body of a boy, the corpse's melted form covered by a large cloak, and the man itself had an expression that could only be described as hateful. The boy in front of him must have been his child, now what was left of it was a disrespectful mess, left behind to die by an unknown beast.

The metal plated man looked away and muttered something under his breath, "Sickness…"

The Overgrown Knight harrumphed to himself and decided that it was a waste of time to deal with the man's manners, and glanced back to the villagers around him, "That being said, may I ask how you all are so well-armed? I did not expect a rather developed village close-by."

But to his annoyance, they brushed him off, "That's not important right now. What can you tell us about this so-called beast of yours?"

"I'd prefer it if I know what I am risking other than my life," The Knight crossed his arm, "Call it professional courtesy; I will make sure not to let more harm come to your community, that is if I'm allowed to ask how I am supposed to do that."

"Fine, fine. Alright," The spearman grumbled in annoyance, "Our community doesn't have that many people, mind you. We're mostly rock sellers, sometimes we're hunters too, as you would already know that crops don't grow well on mountaintops."

He then pointed a thumb to himself, before he started introducing everyone one by one, starting from himself.

"I'm Laefy," The spearman told the Knight, "The old one with the bow here is Joergen, the one wearing chainmail here is Frederick, and that feller you just knocked out earlier was Iohannes."

There was a moment of silence, then the Knight pointed at the ground all over the clearing, "These are pawprints of the beast I just fought, the one that killed all these children. And the wound marks these bodies have are similar to those from foxes and canines, as you can see from the one over there with a claw mark."

The villagers were all observing said marks, including the ones left on the corpses, it was apparent that they were starting to see some sense in the Knight's words.

"But it's not just any foxes," The Overgrown Knight added, "It was some sort of magical beast, something not of this mortal plane. It is the first time I have seen it, too. I suspect it being an apostle, a new one native to this territory. But its actions when I fought it was no less to that of an animal."

He then waved his half-burned cape and ran his hand down his blackened armour. "The damage it has done is destructive. Quite possibly it has an affinity to fire; not unheard of, but not common to my knowledge either."

"You reckon these are caused by… magical beasts?" The young, chain-mailed man called Frederick, asked.

"Bollocks!" Joergen the old one shouted indignantly, "Our village'd not even seen a glimpse o' a wisp for fifteen damn years! The only thing tha's causin' this is black magic, and our community condemns it! Magic's a sickness!"

Laefy nodded his head, "Our community has been mostly peaceful, there's no reason why this had to happen to these boys."

"You said something about magic once terrorizing your community," The Knight asked them, trying to achieve as many information as he could get of the beast as possible, "Was it something related to a beast?"

"No, it's…" Laefy suddenly stopped talking, almost as if he was reminiscing a great hardship, "It was about a wizard who used to be part of our community."

"Was it how you got these weapons of yours?"

The spearman raised his eyebrow, seemingly surprised, "It was a long time ago, a gift from the feudal lord that used to run some part of the mountains."

The Overgrown Knight nodded his head, somewhat understanding their situation. However, there were still things that didn't add up. As far as he knew, it was the only village with a ruling lord for miles. Why were their community so remote?

His best deduction would be that these people had had a history with magic, and perhaps its consequences too. If he didn't know better, this feudal lord that they were talking about must have had a part in what was happening long ago, too. Their weapons were perhaps used to protect themselves from this so-called wizard, not to wage wars, as told by the mysterious incident that caused them to learn of the dangers of magic. What he needed to know was if it would bring him closer to killing the beast.

"And what did he do?" The Overgrown Knight asked them.

"He made a deal with the devil," Laefy continued, his face darkening, "Caused a lot of great troubles, it did. You don't think this and that could be connected, do you?"

"Depends, the consequences of magic are never always absolute," The Knight told them.

"But we don't know anything about magecraft."

"And if it was connected?"

The villagers in front of him all exchanged uneasy glances, as if they had just come to a terrible conclusion.

"Then…" One of them finally said, "We probably know who might be behind this."

* * *

"My mother used to tell me this story a lot."

In the edges of the forest, where the light started to dissipate between the branches of the autumn oak, two little girls could be seen hiding in the clearing, hidden by the thick trees that surrounded them.

"There was once a selfish man who lived his wife. He wished for happiness but was never satisfied, so he went to the mountains to bargain with a god for all sorts of things."

A splash of water was heard. From a rusty metal pail, a stream of clear liquid rushed down onto the thin grass, and one of the girl's naked body was drenched from shoulder to back, bathed completely in the coldness. Raven-coloured hair glistened brightly from the wetness, dangling down the girl's face as she hung her head low. The afternoon sunlight coloured Harmony's bare and wet body in a healthy tan, clear of dirt and filth as the water washed them down.

Behind her was a braid-haired Lydia, naked from her hair to her toes, save for a large piece of cloth that was tied around her waist, covering her from the crotch to her knees. She scrubbed the other girl's body gently with a piece of sponge, held tightly with her two hands. Her voice was soft as she spoke into the thin mountain air.

"The man bargained everything he used to have and he got himself a patch of land to grow wheats in. And from it, village also started to build in his land. But still he was unsatisfied. The man then bargained his crops for metal like silver and steel. And from it, he armed his village with tools, waging battles and winning against a noble lord. And even then, he was still unsatisfied."

Once she was done scrubbing, Lydia squeezed the dirty water to the ground, clearing the sponge before dipping it back into the metal pail that was laid next to her bare feet. A small volume of water was still left, and it was just enough to cleanse the rest of the filth off of Harmony's skin.

"The man kept bargaining and bargaining, but he couldn't see how the god tricked him into giving more than he earned," Lydia continued as she started scrubbing the apprentice's arms one by one, "One day, when his crops had all but left and his riches depleted to a single silver, he realized that he had been cheated. And, to a selfish man like him, all the things he had been bargaining for became nothing more than a burden."

A bird chirped in the distance, followed by the sound of water splashing onto the dirt. There was a moment of silence before Lydia cleared her throat.

"With nothing but suffering left, he decided to cheat the god back. He bargained all his pain into his firstborn child, including all of what was left of his dying village and its people. With this bargain, the god sent down an uncurable plague, and the villagers couldn't do anything to stop it," Her voice started to break, pausing in several words more than once, "His wife was also caught in its massacre."

"Then what happened?" Harmony suddenly asked, head turning past her shoulder to look at her smaller friend.

"Then…" Lydia pursed her lips, almost as if she was trying to remember the rest of the story, "The man decided to leave the village and his dying wife, thinking he was finally freed. But little did he knew that the god had still not gotten the end of their first bargain. And because of it, the god took the selfish man's life when his villagers declared mutiny. Only then that his bargain had all been paid."

Harmony slouched back on her two arms, exposing her small bare breasts to the autumn wind. Her eyes looked down onto the grass, an expression of musing etched across her half-wet face, "What happened to his child?"

"Now it carries all of its father's burden and pain for the rest of its life, unloved by no one and hated by everyone."

The raven-haired girl's silence was filled with a pregnant semblance, so did Lydia's after she had finished her tale.

When the smaller girl was done with her scrubbing, she proceeded to put away her sponge before lifting the metal pail and what was left of its contents and splashed it all down Harmony's body. The raven-haired girl shivered in response, still not used to the coldness of the mountainous river water.

"Ahh~ That feels good!" She squealed joyfully as she stood up from the tree trunk.

The raven-haired girl then observed herself; a dried scar left behind by the fox-creature's attack darkened the skin under her bicep, but the cold water that washed over it had made it numb, even when Harmony had caressed it with her own fingers. Everything else was dripping wet, the dried leaves and grass under her were starting to darken from the puddle that had built up from her own bath water. But she had not felt fresher from since she had started travelling with the Overgrown Knight.

"Yep! Everything's clean!" Harmony giggled in satisfaction, "So this how it feels like to take bath after not having one in weeks! I can't thank you enough for this!"

"Y-you're welcome," Lydia said, stammering against her words, "A-and, you can bathe as much as you wish… As thanks for saving me…"

"Don't sweat it!" Harmony reassured her, smiling proudly as she walked around the stump and towards a nearby tree. The girl's figure glistening under the afternoon sun, light bounced off of her wet curves as a lone ray of light shot down from above between the leaves. She reached for where the light fell, onto the nearest branch to the nearest tree that held a piece of towel, like the one Lydia had wrapped around her waist.

Meanwhile, Lydia was cleaning up her bathing equipment; the pail that she once used to carry clear river water was now filled with the filth and dirt that contaminated whatever liquid was left, perhaps from cleaning both her and Harmony's bodies, leaving brownish wet spots all over the insides of the pail. She squeezed her sponge again, making sure that it was completely dry, before using it to scrub the pail completely. She bent her body forward, the metal pail on its side, placed right on top of the lone tree trunk before her. The cloth that covered her crotch could only cover so much, leaving her buttocks exposed to the cold wind.

She sighed to herself, letting the wind pass and the sunlight warm her body once more. Her mind still filled with thoughts of awe, particularly at how shockingly dirty Harmony was. Had it not for the wounds on both their bodies that needed a proper wash, she could only imagine how uncomfortable it would have been for Harmony if she was let to stay uncleaned for heavens knows how many more months. Lydia shook her head, reassuring herself. She ran a hand against her braided hair, making sure that it was not loose, before she returned to cleaning the pail.

Once Harmony had finished drying her body, including her hair which was now an unruly rendition of what once was, she stared off into the depth of the woods, "Sir Knight sure is taking his time…"

Her expression was almost as if she was expecting the Overgrown Knight to pop out from the woods at any second, only to be sourly disappointed when he didn't.

"It would be dangerous if the fox returns," She mused, but her voice had a hint of worry, "I don't know how I will be able to save the village all by myself."

The smaller girl eavesdropped from afar, but she said nothing. To be more precise, she had nothing to say to Harmony, already knowing how, even after all her worry, she would still not lose hope that the Overgrown Knight was still alive out there, somewhere, tracking down and battling the beast without end.

He didn't look all that great, a voice in Lydia's head said. But her mind kept rewinding back to when the man had performed incredible feats in front of her eyes. All the doubts in her mind should've been cleared, the Knight would surely come victorious, much like how Harmony had envisioned him to be. But no matter what the reality was… Lydia felt like it was the worst possible outcome.

"Hey, Lydia," Harmony suddenly said, "How's your bruises? Does it still hurt somewhere?"

"Eh? Er… No, I'm fine…" The smaller girl answered her back in a hasty sort of way, almost as if she had just been shocked out of her mind.

"Good! I was worried that I was still clumsy in emergency aids," Said the Knight's apprentice, shaking her head as if remembering something, "Me and Sir Knight came to a small village some weeks ago, you see? There, a carriage rider tumbled down a ditch and his leg was stuck under the cart. Sir Knight made me wrap a cast by myself, and even though the carriage rider bid his thanks, I still don't think that I'm cut out for it."

Lydia glanced past her bare shoulder when a moment of silence passed, gazing onto Harmony's naked form, lifting her dress and shoes off of the ground as she did. Then, without saying anything, she threw away her face. Even if she looked like she had something that she finally wanted to tell.

After a while, Lydia finally opened her mouth, "… Umm…"

"Hm? What is it?" Harmony called back; her towel wrapped down her shoulders.

"Why… why are you travelling with that Knight?" Lydia hid her face, not being able to look the raven-haired girl's face when she asked that question.

But Harmony was ecstatic enough to respond to her, "Well, because I want to be the greatest knight ever!" she said while striking a rather confident pose.

When Lydia was done cleaning, she slowly walked towards Harmony while carrying the metal pail in her hands, "U-umm… I've never heard of a girl knight, before…"

"Huh?! You too?!" Harmony exclaimed, causing Lydia to feel rather taken aback, "Not only Sister Julia but everyone else too, huh?! Dangit… if only all the kingdom's knights are girls!"

Lydia placed down the metal pail and began undoing the knot on the cloth that covered her waist. Near the tree that they stood next to were two piles of clothes, each belonging to Harmony and Lydia. The fabrics were strewn about, but was dry enough for them to wear. Their naked bodies steamed the air around them, the waters that were stuck to their skin started to evaporate as their body temperature rose.

The smaller girl started to dry herself with the piece of cloth after untying it from her waist, "Sister Julia was… the one who made that health potion, wasn't she?"

"Yeah, she is the best! She's very smart and taught me everything I know," Harmony told her as she had already started dressing herself with her own clothes, "She's just like my own ma' but… Sister Patricia is also like my ma'… so does that mean I have two ma's? Hmmm…"

It was no mystery to Lydia that Harmony came from a clerical church and grew up with a number of children. The both of them had exchanged stories with each other about their lives when they bathed, but to know that the Overgrown Knight and Harmony were once strangers were shock to Lydia.

She herself had never seen a clergy, but from the stories that Harmony told gave her enough idea of what it was like. Even if Harmony did not dress like one.

When Harmony was still busy thinking, with only her tunic on and nothing to cover her from the crotch down, Lydia spoke once more, "Aren't you… sad that you left them?"

"Of course, I'm sad," Harmony answered her without looking, "But I made a promise to my family. And I haven't finished my knight training, after all."

Lydia started putting her dress on herself, her lips pursing impatiently, "Did… they really accepted that?"

"Well… they did want be to become a cleric at first," Harmony said, her voice turned sour.

"Then, why did you leave?"

"Because I don't want to become a cleric!" The raven-haired girl yelled out, but it faded just as quick as it appeared, "I wanted to become the greatest knight in history for as long as I can remember! I don't want to waste my life doing something I don't like!"

"But they'd hate you for it, wouldn't they?" Lydia suddenly pressed her, "What would your father say?"

Only when Harmony turned around to face her with a rather shocked look, did Lydia realize just how inappropriate she had acted when she asked that question while raising her tone. Her face flushed in embarrassment, before fully turning it away, not able to face Harmony once more.

When the raven-haired girl decided to speak, it struck a nerve on Lydia, "… I've never met my father. Sister said that she had found me long ago by their doorstep… I didn't even have a note on me, or a name. All I know is that I've been in the clergy for as long as I can remember."

Harmony was looking away again, perhaps still reminiscing over a painful memory that she had once buried, only to be unearthed once more.

"It's not like… you know… I don't want to become a cleric," She added, sighing a little, "I just can't. I'm not like my siblings, or my Sisters. And well… it's probably 'cause I also don't know who I came from, too. And I don't want to wait until I do."

The smaller girl fidgeted uncomfortably, realizing what she had done. "S-sorry…"

An awkward silence overwhelmed them, even the autumn breeze stopped passing by just to bathe them in the lukewarm ray of afternoon sunlight.

"But it's alright!" Harmony suddenly said aloud. Another smile was etched across her face, "I have Mister Knight now! And he's like a father to me, even if he never takes baths, always runs off and never tell me when he'll be back, and forces me to drink mushroom stew every morning."

Even if Lydia couldn't understand, she could see it from her face. Never once had she seen a smile as genuine as Harmony's. Even after telling her how she had once been abandoned, the knight's apprentice did not seem to show as if it was weighing her down.

It was admirable, to say the least. Even Lydia was still shaken after being chased by a monster, but Harmony had brushed it off an hour later almost as if it was nothing; just a pebble in her path.

"My Sister and my siblings all believe in me," Harmony said indignantly, facing Lydia completely, eyes staring into one another, "I have to make sure that what they believe in comes true!"

She then finished tying her own pants, hastily stretching her legs to let them fit perfectly into the leather. When Harmony finally started to fit into her own shoes, Lydia still had her eyes unmoving from the girl. A ghastly stare seemingly started to slowly imprint itself onto her ember eyes, but no sound managed to amass itself from her throat. It was as if her mind had stopped thinking completely, or rather, she was waiting.

Lydia wasn't completely sure what she was waiting for. Perhaps longing, for an emotion, similar to that Harmony had confidence enough to dream in. The stories she told, was nothing compared to what the girl beside her had promised to make, or at least that was what Lydia believed. It was so easy to see it; a ladylike Harmony in a suit of armour. But when Lydia pictured herself in the same spot… she couldn't. She waited, and waited, and waited, but she couldn't see it. She couldn't feel it.

The more that she tried, the more it felt like it was burning her chest. Almost as if a piece of ember was pulling down at her heartstrings. And what was worse, she knew exactly what was causing her this uncertain twang.

But she was sure of one thing; that if the Overgrown Knight did return, she would never see Harmony again. This moment with her was the happiest memory Lydia ever had. And that thought of being left alone was stronger than the confusion that mucked her mind. If only Harmony wouldn't leave. If only something forced her to stay. Then maybe… maybe she'd understand.

"Hey… Harmony…" Lydia suddenly spoke, her voice low, almost croaky, "I'm… I'm actually…"

She stopped talking, her hand pausing just as she was tying the ribbon around her waist. Then, her ears perked up at the sound of clamouring. From the path in the middle of the forest where they had once taken, towards the direction of the cottage where Lydia's mother was resting, a number of small indistinct chatters were heard; someone was coming.

Harmony and Lydia both exchanged wary glances. The two of them hurriedly clothed themselves, and a few seconds later, a group of men emerged from the woods.

"Eh?" A rather stern looking man, clad in light armour while sporting a spear spoke out when his eyes were laid upon the two little girls, "Who's the other one?"

"Looks like a thief," Another man—much older than the others—said as he appeared behind the one before him, a bow strapped around his shoulder, "We should bring 'er in, too."

The raven-haired girl knew that they were talking about her, and by the tone of how they spoke, they weren't planning on letting her explain herself. The other men that followed suit, all started marching out into the open field, and before the two girls knew it, they were already surrounded. The two girls had their faces flushed in alert, unknown if the men in front of her were of heinous intentions.

Both Harmony and Lydia were still had somewhat an unfixed appearance, with their belts loose and shirts untucked, but they didn't have time to do anything about it, nor did it seem like they had the opportunity to do so.

"No, this must be the companion that Knight feller was talking about," A man said to the others after he got a good look at the two girls.

"Can't be, that one's hasn't gotten a sword on her," Another answered him, "What kinda apprentice walks around armless?"

"It's a kid, Joergen," A man with a spear told him scoffingly, "Let's just get the redhair and be done with it."

"Oh, shut up, Laefy ye daft bastard," Joergen spat back, "After wha' happened today, and wha' happened six years ago, yer still gonna believe that some bint in a mossy armour ain't like the rest of 'em? We don't know what he damn well wants with us, and I know it ain't what he say it is!"

Harmony's heart sank just a little at the mention of the Overgrown Knight with such disrespect, and it troubled her more that, by how they spoke about him, it was almost as if it was because of the Overgrown Knight that these mysterious men were there at that moment, and he was unable to help his own apprentice.

The raven-haired girl took a defensive stance, brushing off every last bit of worried thought she currently had, her back pointed towards Lydia's still form. It was no mystery that these men knew of the smaller girl behind her, but it wasn't clear to Harmony if they were people _she_ knew. She tried to recall all the lessons the Overgrown Knight had taught her, most of it having fleeing as the first resort. But it seemed like there was no way she could run out of this, not when there was the possibility of having to leave Lydia behind.

There must be someway she could escape with Lydia like she did before. But these people weren't beasts. People were unpredictable and smart. Running around piggybacking Lydia all over the forest would've been the worst possible idea she could come up with.

Her thoughts were cut short when she felt a hand grabbing at her shoulder from the side, "Hey, be careful, that girl behind you is—"

"NO!" She cried as loud as she could, surprising the man which the hand belonged to. The raven-haired girl then quickly retreated back, urging Lydia with her.

The other men just seemed shock, but Harmony did not lower her gaze. She kept eyeing each and every one of them, while forcefully pushing Lydia further back to protect her. The man who had touched her was the most agitated, he wore a chainmail armour and had the youngest complexion when compared with the others. Perhaps he didn't expect such reaction from a little girl.

"What the hell are you doing, Frederick?!" The spearman called Laefy shouted at him angrily.

"I was trying to warn her!" The man named Frederick exclaimed, his face burning red, "She's protecting the Sickness, doesn't she know that?!"

Harmony said nothing, she kept thinking about how these people seemingly didn't even know Lydia's name. They keep calling her as if she was something unnatural. It was worse that some of the men with them agreed with him.

She had no idea what to expect from the strangers. All she knew was that she couldn't trust them.

Just when Harmony was starting to question what they were talking about, she was reminded of the existence of the girl behind her. She took a slight glance at Lydia, who was still silent, but the moment Harmony noticed her blank, wide-eyed expression, she realized that perhaps Lydia had not been the most honest.

"Listen, listen, you two," Leafy said towards both the girls in exasperation. He managed to sigh aloud, cutting off the heated debate that was starting to rise, "Obviously, you don't understand what is going on here. You're the Knight's apprentice, aren't you?"

Harmony perked up at the mention of her name, "Where is he?"

"He's waiting. For you," Laefy told her, his spear placed in a standing position right before him, "Look, this is never about you… Miss…"

"Harmony."

Laefy nodded, his hands gesturing for her to ease herself, "Right. All we want is the girl. The Knight also wants the girl. We won't be bothering you again, I promise. Hell, you can come with us, if that's what you want. You're free to do anything so long you leave the girl alone."

"… I want to meet him now," Harmony said, her voice shaky, "I want to meet Sir Knight."

"He'll explain everything to you, after you hand us the girl."

"She's staying!" Harmony yelled, her thoughts starting to go back and forth on what she should do.

"That can't happen," Laefy's voice sounded even more grim, almost as if he was losing his patience, "Do you even know what that thing is? Three kids're dead, and the only hope we have to stop more from dying is that girl behind you."

A pause, only the sound of her heartbeat deafened Harmony's ear. They were trapped, and for the Knight's apprentice, it was between the choice of obediently following their command, or to flee. Both of which, she thought in her head, had as much uncertainty as the other. She kept hoping that perhaps the girl behind her would finally speak with her own voice, speak anything that could help them at that moment.

… But she didn't.

"Look at her," Laefy pressed once more, his tone rising, "She's not denying it, is she? Come here, dear. It will be easier for all of us if you do."

"You're lying!" Harmony shouted, "Lydia, she's—"

"I said, come here, Lydia!" The spearman immediately cut her off, his expression contorting in impatience. He was at his wits end.

"I want Sir Knight!" Harmony started to lose her voice, she could feel daggers staring at her from all around, "I'm not letting you take her anywhere until—Lydia?!"

It was then that she realized that she was not shielding anyone anymore. The braided girl was now in front of her, walking softly towards the group of men, almost as if she was in a trance. When she passed Harmony, the latter could only see an expression of hollowness, which struck deeply at her heart, as if a part of her was trying to say that her friend couldn't have betrayed her.

But Lydia didn't even glance at Harmony, not even once. Her pace fastened when she was already halfway between Harmony and Leafy, and as if time had stopped, the raven-haired girl could finally see the faces of their attackers one by one, smiling in satisfaction and relief.

It only took her just a split second to grab the metal pail behind her, before chucking it as strong as she could towards the spearman. With a loud bang, and a pained yell, Laefy stumbled backwards as the pail smashed against his face.

In front of him stood Lydia, almost thunder-struck at what she saw, but she had no time to process her shock when someone suddenly grabbed at her right wrist and pulled her forward, turning her into a running mess.

"HEY! GET THEM!" The sound of Joergen's furious bark echoed throughout her ears, but all Lydia could focus on was how Harmony had pulled them out of the corner, past Laefy's dazed form, and made the both of them disappear into the darkness of the autumn woods, saying nothing to Lydia even when they were already deep into their escape. The smaller girl's heartbeat felt like it just stopped, disappearing into the rush as she obediently followed the pace of the raven-haired girl's dash.

They quickly trailed the light dirt path, towards the direction back to the mountainous village. They could hear shouting behind them, but none were brave enough to look. All they had was just time, and one small chance to escape.

But to do that, Harmony needed to find the Overgrown Knight.

* * *

**_To be continued..._**


End file.
